


His Masterpiece

by Deviant Demon Lord (KneelForLoki)



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Ace Connor, Android Revolution, Asexual Connor, Bathroom Sex, Detective, Detective Work, Detroit, Drug Use, Drugs, F/M, Gavin/Oc is only the beginning, Hank/Oc is basically just platonic, Hurt/Comfort, Plot Twist, Police, Police Detective, Possibly angst, Possibly multiple Endings, Semi-Public Sex, Workplace Sex, have fun with that, human?, lots of fluff, police work, red ice, surprise abt that, tiny bit of smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2019-06-12 13:32:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 49,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15340914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KneelForLoki/pseuds/Deviant%20Demon%20Lord
Summary: Detective Cassandra Carter has been Hank Anderson's partner for years, ever since she started at the DPD. He was her mentor, now he's her friend. They keep each other alive and somewhat well. But an unlucky case starting with a very much failed plan leaves Cassandra unable to work for a while. And when she returns, it seems she's been replaced.Honestly this just originated from a few small ideas and headcanons that bundled up while playing detroit approx. 5000 times xD Probably will add in a litte "choose your own path" option later on, including multiple endings...path options will affect Connor's actions mainly.Smut is seperated from the rest, you can just skip itSPOILERS FOR SOME ENDINGS, I'M STICKING LOWKEY CLOSE TO SOME STUFF YOU'VE BEEN WARNED





	1. Chapter 1.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit:   
> I chose to seperate the smut from the rest of the fanfic, so you can skip the smut if you like. So yeah  
> SMUT WARNING HERE  
> Skip this chapter if you don't like it!

Panting, steaming hot bodies pressed flush against each other in full body skin on skin contact, delicate fingers gripping and almost desperately grasping at broad shoulders, arms wrapped around a muscular back. Her own back was shoved up against the cold wall of one of the bathroom stalls, her legs wrapped around his hips, feet hooked into one another, almost cramping up as he moved against her relentlessly. Her breasts were against his chest as she arched into him, hearing his breathy moans right by her ear as she practically pressed her head into the wall behind herself, tilting it back and stretching her neck. Her bun had come loose, red-ish brown hair pooled around her shoulders, covered the light brown dots sprinkled all over her pale skin. She had her eyes closed, her jaw dropped open as she let out silent pants and moans, her short nails digging into his skin, dragging over his back, she couldn’t hold her hands in one place anymore. They wandered over his shoulders, down his back, down to his ass, where they slid against her own legs, then moved back up, clawing into his short, slicked back hair. Their clothes were in a pile on the floor behind him, she wasn’t sure why he had insisted to undress her and himself completely, after all this was not a place where they could spend ages laying around and calming down once they were done, they had to walk out looking as neat as possible and hope that no one would catch onto what they had been doing. Having to hastily put their clothes back on in a tiny bathroom stall wouldn’t be helping in that matter. Still that was a problem to deal with later. All that mattered now was this heavenly feeling of his hands gripping onto her thighs, holding her up so she wouldn’t slip from him. His hips rutting against hers in a steady rhythm, his head coming down into her neck, his light stubble tickling and scratching her skin as he mouthed and kissed and licked at her neck, his teeth scraping against her, the sweetly soft vibrations as he moaned and hummed and murmured her name right on her skin.  
“Cass…fuck…Cassandra”, his voice was deeper than usual, heavy with lust and arousal, growling with pleasure.  
He gently bit into her skin and started sucking, but as soon as he did she gripped his hair tightly, pulling his head back so he would stop.  
“Don’t. I don’t have a scarf”, she mumbled, earning only a displeased growl from him, but he stopped nonetheless, even if he gripped her thighs just a little bit more roughly, just enough to potentially form a bruise.  
She moaned softly at the pressure, spread her legs more, pushing her heels into the bottom of his back to pull him in closer, to take him deeper into her, raising one hand to cover her mouth as he suddenly hit a sweet spot deep inside of her, trying desperately to muffle her own moans. He moved faster, he seemed to have noticed that he hit something inside her, trying to keep the angle, sliding in and out of her with ease.  
“Fuck~”, she panted out, wrapping one arm around his shoulder to hold onto him, hold herself up better while moving one hand down in between them, towards her crotch, but before she could reach it one of his arms slipped around her waist so he would be able to hold her up with just one arm, his now free hand quickly snatching her wrist and lifting it above her head, holding it there.  
Cassandra glanced at him, a frown forming on her face, but before she could say anything he gave one particularly hard thrust into her, ramming against that perfect spot, drowning her cry of pleasure out with a kiss, smashing his lips into hers and almost immediately sliding his tongue into her mouth. She let her hand come down into his hair once he let go of her wrist to play with her breast, returning the heated kiss. His thrusts started getting erratic, falling out of rhythm. Her legs were shaking slightly, muscles twitching. But that tiny bit was missing to get her off just right.  
“Say my name”, he suddenly grunted right into her ear.  
She made a face, pretended she didn’t hear him. He rammed into her again, causing her to moan, then said it again.  
“Say my name”  
She groaned, this time not out of pleasure.  
“Hell no. Can’t you just not ruin it for once?”, she mumbled.  
He slowed down and pulled back, frowning and looking at her.  
“How the fuck am I ruining it?”  
“Come on”, she leant her head back against the wall, “I don’t want to say your fuckin name”  
“Why not?”, he frowned more, leaning back from her slightly.  
“You wanna continue or not?”, Cassandra rose an eyebrow.  
He huffed.  
“Are you seriously sulking right now?”  
“I want you to say my fucking name. Scream it when you cum. Because it’s me fucking you senseless”  
Cassandra frowned more, moving to push one hand through his hair, kissing along his cheek and his jaw, until she got to his neck.  
“God, Gavin is simply not a name you can moan”  
He wanted to say something but was silenced as she rolled her hips against his again. For a moment he hesitated, but then went along with it again, picking his pace back up, thrusting and moving and rolling his hips against hers, as if nothing had happened. Cassandra did her best to keep him close to her, to keep him going, pulling him against her with her legs pressed into his back, moaning into his ear, groaning and panting and pleading for more, and she could feel the effect she had on him. She could feel his arousal growing again, could feel him twitching inside her, oh so close to his sweet release. And he was hitting that spot again, that amazing spot, bringing her to the edge. Her heartbeat quickened, her breath hitching in the back of her throat.  
“Yes~ Yes- Oh right there!”, she panted out, trying her best to keep herself quiet.  
Gavin rested his head against the wall right beside hers, his nose touching her shoulder, his hot breath coming against her skin as he panted and moaned and mumbled against her. All too quickly his fast and deep thrusts became smaller, he didn’t pull out all the way anymore, not even half way, merely hammering in small thrusts right against her sweet spot, making her see stars, making her forget about everything around her. She could feel her voice blocking her throat, she could feel a tingle deep in her stomach, her heart pounding against her chest. Her skin felt like it was on fire wherever it came into contact with his. Her eyelids fluttered closed, eyes rolling back as she moaned loudly, whole body shaking in pleasure. She heard his groans, heard him panting as he came but still refused to slow down, using the time that he still was hard to get her through. A few more thrusts, each one seemed more perfectly placed than the one before and she felt wave after wave of pleasure rolling over her, loosing all control. Luckily Gavin had enough brains to clasp one hand over her mouth before she cried out as she orgasmed, silencing her. Her toes curled upwards, her feet stretching out almost painfully, her nails dug into his shoulders, almost drawing blood, but he didn’t really seem to care. Finally, he slowed to a stop, his cock soft inside her, still he held her up, letting her come down from her high. She slumped against the wall, panting against his hand until she found the strength to open her eyes again, if only halfway. Cassandra looked up at him, then she opened her mouth, licked along his palm. He returned her gaze, smirked and took away his hand, moving in to replace it with his mouth, darting his tongue forward before their lips even met. She watched him for a moment as his eyes closed, then she allowed her eyes to close as well. He slipped out of her, drawing a small hum from her throat as she felt him against her oversensitive walls one last time before all she could feel was aching emptiness. The redhead broke out of the kiss, looked down in between them for a moment. She’d almost forgotten he had put on a condom before they started, at least that. Gavin slowly set her down, holding onto her for a moment to help her steady herself while she let out a shaky breath.  



	2. Chapter 1.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What happened: Gavin and Cassandra fucked in a bathroom stall lol

“God, you’re so beautiful all messed up like this”, he took her cheek in his hand, let his thumb glide over her cheekbone.  
Cassandra looked at him for a few seconds, then reached up, pushing a hand through her hair, soon gripping what was left of her bun and took out the hair tie before collecting her hair in her hands to pull it up again.  
“Get dressed”, she said, “You’re leaving first. I need longer to get ready anyway”  
He hesitated, then his hand dropped back to his side before he turned around to grab his clothes.  
“Y’know, I don’t understand you. Sometimes you’re all over me and then you turn back into that bitch”, he growled.  
“We’re not in a relationship. I told you that before”, Cassandra sighed, tying and twisting her hair back into its usual bun, “And I’m not interested in one. Not with you”  
Gavin glanced back at her, rolled his eyes as he yanked his pants up, buckling his belt and soon unlocking the stall door, stepping out. She hummed softly, bent down to pick up her clothes, putting everything on carefully, marking sure everything was neat and tidy as it had been before she pulled her co-worker into the bathroom with her. Once she heard the door closing, she stepped out of the stall, straightened her blouse and the dark grey vest that was over it once more, then reached down, pulling her black pencil skirt back to her knees, where it should be. As soon as she felt like her clothes were in order, her gaze moved up to her reflection in the mirror. She took a few steps forward, placed her hands at the sink and propped herself up on it for a moment. Her cheeks were still flushed, the eyeliner around her green eyes had smudged a little. That would have to either be fixed or removed. A small sigh slipped from her lips as she looked around. Her bag was still at her desk, she would have to walk out like this to get it…if need be she could tell any curious co-workers that her boyfriend had broken up with her, or a family member had died. They didn’t know her enough to be able to hell she didn’t have any family she cared about. Or a boyfriend. The only one who would know was Hank Anderson, her mentor, partner and friend, but for one he hadn’t been there yet when she left her desk, and on another note, he wouldn’t be one to ask. Cassandra leant over the sink a little, turned her face to take a closer look, the freckles covering her nose and cheeks almost blended in with the redness of her face. Her lips were slightly swollen from Gavin’s heavy kisses. She scrunched up her nose, wiped the back of her hand over her mouth, not really caring about her lipstick smearing across her face even more. Her eyes wandered down to her hand, looking at the soft rose colour smeared all over it.  
“Fuck…”, she mumbled softly, turned on the water and straightened her back again, trying her best to wash off the lipstick, grabbing some paper towels to try and rub it off, then doing the same to her lips.  
Another look in the mirror was a little more pleasing, more neat. She stroked over her hair absentmindedly, eyes fixated on their picture in front of her. Her pupils were still unnaturally dilated, almost glassy from the aftereffect of her orgasm. As much as she claimed to hate Gavin, and he was an asshole, no doubt, at least he could get her off. Still to her, he would never be good enough for more than the occasional release, more than rushed, dirty sex during their breaks, or when they had nothing to do. She had done that to herself before with one like him and she wasn’t going to again. Cassandra looked over towards the door for a moment as she heard steps on the other side, but they passed and she let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. One last gaze into the mirror and she turned around, walking out, trying to keep her steps as steady as possible. No one was in sight, not at the moment, so she simply strutted back to her desk. Halfway there though she noticed a familiar figure sitting at the one across from hers, slightly hunched over, his posture alone radiated annoyance, an aura that just said “stay the fuck away from me”. But to her the sight was like home. Cassandra bit her lip slightly, then couldn’t help but smile though and walked up behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind.  
“Good afternoon, Hank”, she hummed cheerfully, ignoring his weak struggled to get her off him.  
“Let go of me”, he growled, “And keep it down, for fucks sake”  
He smelled like alcohol, his voice was slurred and his movements too slow to convince anyone he was actually sober. She was used to it, it was the norm for him actually.  
“Oh come on, Hank, I know you’re happy to see me”, she purred and playfully pecked his cheek, letting go of him to straighten up.  
He turned around to look at her, frowning.  
“Where the hell even were you? I came in fifteen minutes ago”, he looked her up and down, then his eyes seemed to stick to her face for a moment.  
“Bathroom”, Cass shrugged and turned to go sit down at her desk, not minding the still sceptical gaze her partner kept on her.  
She grabbed her bag, took out a small make-up mirror and her make-up remover tissues along with her eyeliner and lipstick. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see Hank still watching her with furrowed eyebrows.  
“Anything happened?”, he asked then, turned back to his computer terminal and just gave her a small side glance now.  
Cassandra looked up at him, a small smile on her lips.  
“I’m perfectly fine. Don’t worry about me”, she hummed, then proceeded to wipe the make up off her face to reapply it.  
“I’m not”, Hank growled slightly, but glanced at her once again.  
She knew he cared about her just as much as she did about him. They’d seen each other in dark places, he’d made sure she lived to see another sunrise more than once already, she’d stuck with him through the death of his son, the divorce from his wife, even if back then they hadn’t known each other for a long time. He had provided her a temporary home, a safe space after her ex had beaten her to unconsciousness and she just needed to get away from him, until she could get her own place. She had taken care of him night after night that he drank and drank until he passed out, drove him home and sobered him up enough to stay alive. They were family to each other, even if he would never admit it.  
“Now that you’re finally in. Fowler assigned us a new case”, she then mentioned as she straightened up again, pressing her lips together for a moment before stuffing her things back into her bag.  
“What now?”, Hank looked over at her.  
“Red Ice”, she rolled her eyes slightly, “Suspicions of a gang of dealers in the suburbs. Some teen died of an overdose and those guys are our lead”  
“Sounds like more than can be handled by two detectives”, Hank rose an eyebrow.  
“That’s why we have a team. Hank I think you need some sleep before we go anywhere. You look like shit”, Cassandra leant on her desk slightly.  
“Fuck sleep. I don’t need shit”, Hank huffed, looking at her, “Send me the files”  
The girl sighed softly but turned to her terminal and clicked around until she got the case info sent over to her partner. It wasn’t much, merely a lead, a witness report from one of the teenager’s friends, merely the information that he had wanted to meet someone and the address of said meeting. And the kid’s last few calls and texts. She had crystallized out the phone number in question already.  
“I guess you’re planning to lure them in as a customer”, he said as he noticed the last piece of information.  
Cassandra just gave a small nod, glancing down at her hands, her fingernails and the paint that was slowly coming off.  
“Is it confirmed that we’re dealing with a group?”  
“Pretty much. We dealt with them once before but couldn’t get a grasp on all of them. Remember that girl we got a few months back?”, she asked him.  
“I don’t even remember what I did two days ago”  
“You should really sober up before we do this”  
“Shut up”  
Cassandra sighed, shaking her head.  
“Alright. We got one of them, a few months ago, couldn’t get anything out of her but that she was working for someone, then she refused to cooperate”, she explained.  
“Mh…I think that rings a bell”, mumbled the man across from her now.  
“It should…Fowler expects results. And you’re gonna write the report. I’ve been working on this shit all morning already”, Cassandra said and moved her gaze back to the monitor in front of her.  
“You spent at least fifteen minutes in the bathroom, whatever you were doing in there, honestly, I don’t want to know”  
She couldn’t help a small smirk now.  
“Yea, but other than you, I was in for work at 6 am. That’s…”, she glanced at the digital clock on her desk, “exactly 7 hours and twenty minutes longer than you’ve been here. Seven hours more work than you have done today”  
“Twenty minutes in the bathroom, really?”, was Hank’s only commentary, looking at her with one eyebrow raised.  
“Coffee break around eight”, she corrected him, “And that only took five minutes because Gavin took the last cup of coffee right before I got to the break room so I had to make more coffee”  
Now Hank couldn’t help a small smirk.  
“Asshole”, he mumbled, and she agreed with a chuckle.  
“Talking about coffee, go get me one, would you?”, he added then.  
“Get it yourself”, Cassandra leant on her desk slightly, smirking.  
“The fuck do I have you for then?”, Hank rose an eyebrow.  
“To save your ass and make sure you don’t drown yourself in alcohol too much”, she replied without missing a beat, “I’m not your trainee anymore, I’m a detective”  
“You’re a child”, he said, getting up.  
“I’m 27”  
“A child”, he repeated, smirking as he made his way to the break room.  
Cassandra shook her head, chuckling softly before reaching back to her bun, gripping it slightly as if to make sure it was still in place. Her hand slid down to her neck, rubbing it slightly and she looked up again. Though as she did her eyes almost immediately met Gavin’s, glaring at her from across the room as he stood by the break room with one of the female officers, standing awfully close to her and according to his expression and stance very desperately trying to make her jealous. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, redirecting her attention to the case at hand, to the information on the display before her. Though at the corners of her consciousness something caught her eye again. She didn’t lift her head, just rolled her eyes up barely enough to get a better view on the figure approaching her. Oh, she should have guessed it.  
“Fuck off”, she hummed before Gavin even had the chance to open his mouth.  
“One coffee”, he just said then.  
“What about no do you not understand?”, she lifted her head now.  
“You’re so goddamn clever, you should know I won’t back down until you agree”, he put his cup of coffee down on her table and placed his hands beside it, leaning on the table.  
Cassandra leant back, bringing more space in between them and crossed her arms.  
“Can you take no for what it is? A no?”, she rose an eyebrow.  
In the distance she could see Hank, just grabbing his cup of coffee and turning to come back to his desk, a frown forming on his face as he spotted the detective at Cass’s desk.  
“I know you don’t mean it. Not with the way you acted earlier”  
“Oh, you mean that thing that didn’t happen?”, she glared at him.  
“We both know it did very much happen”, he leant down more, “One coffee”, he repeated his request.  
“Detective Reed”, she started, but was cut off by Hank’s arrival.  
The Lieutenant stood beside Gavin, looked down at him and sipped at his coffee, not saying anything. Gavin looked up at him, straightened up and glanced back down at Cassandra before walking off.  
“Now what the fuck was that about?”, Hank asked her.  
“He’s been annoying me for a while. It doesn’t matter and I can handle it myself”, she insisted.  
Hank frowned widely at that, but didn’t say anything else, going to sit at his desk again. Cassandra sighed, then moved, reaching for her phone.  
“I’m going to send the guy a text. The sooner we get this case through the better”, she mumbled, moving to type the number into her phone.  
“With as little information as we have? You’re gonna get yourself killed for fucks sake, stop it”, he reached over, grabbing at her phone, but Cass quickly pulled back, glaring at him.  
“We’re not going to find out anything more by sitting around. The information’s not gonna come flying to us. Besides. You and the team will be with me to protect me, huh?”, she looked at him, watching him give up his protest with a sigh.  
“You really wanna do that with your own phone?”, Hank rose an eyebrow at her.  
“Don’t have another one, so, yea”, she glanced up at him, then continued, quickly typing a message, telling the guy that a certain friend got her his number, she was having a bad time and desperately needed to get hooked up.  
Once she was done she showed her phone to Hank.  
“Good enough?”  
“Should work”, he replied shortly, “Guessing the team’s ready anytime”  
She nodded.  
“Now the waiting begins”, she sighed, leaning back.  
Mere seconds later her phone rang, a small ding announcing the text message.  
“Well, that was quick”, Hank rose an eyebrow.  
Cassandra frowned, grabbed her phone to see a text from Gavin.  
‘Not done yet’ it said.  
She glanced over at the detective in annoyance, then set her phone back down.  
“Nope”, she then just said, moving to get back at her terminal, “I’m gonna finish off that report finally”


	3. Chapter 2

A day passed when in the late evening, Cassandra was snapped to attention by her phone. She was sitting on the couch in Hank’s living room, her partner passed out in his bed after a long night in the bar. She drove him home, gave him water, prepared him an aspirin for the morning…though it seemed that would have to come sooner than expected. Cassandra reached into her pocket, taking her hand off the St. Bernard by her side. Sumo lifted his head, looking at her for a moment before resting it back onto his paws. She quickly skimmed the text, then sat up straighter. She’d expected Gavin bothering her again, after all there hadn’t been a word from him since the last text, she’d expected Fowler getting on her heels again to get something going, or to finally file in that report she’d promised days ago. But the short message, saying nothing more than a time, a place, and a threat to better bring enough money, was honestly surprising at the moment.  
“Hank!”, she called out, not really thinking, before she got up off the couch.  
The time they set was three hours from their current, the place all the way across thee city, if they wanted to collect the team and get there on time, they needed to leave, right now. Her quick steps carried her to Hank’s bedroom, she opened the door without knocking.  
“Get up, old man, we got work to do!”, she said quickly, loud enough to actually make him stir, if nothing more.  
He grumbled, turned around, kept sleeping. Cassandra looked over at him, hesitating. He was actually sleeping, not passed out, asleep, resting.  
“Fuck”, she cursed out quietly, then turned, quietly closing the door behind herself before typing around on her phone, getting calling the leader of the team that was assigned to her, moving to put on her hoodie jacket, grabbing Hank’s keys from the table and rushing out the door with one last apologizing gaze to Sumo. She heard the dialing tone, going on and on as she made her way to the car, unlocking it and basically jumping into the driver’s seat. The phone was soon squeezed in between her shoulder and her ear as she took several tries in pressing the car key into the ignition. When she finally succeeded in getting the engine started, her head twitched and her phone slipped from her ear, between her legs and down to the floor of the car. Again, she let out a curse, looked down for a moment and basically forced in the reverse. Hank would kill her if he saw her handle his car this roughly. Cassandra wrapped an arm around the back rest of the passenger seat, looking out the back window as she drove out of the driveway, onto the street, stopped with screeching tires and drove off quickly in the opposite direction.  
“…person you called is currently unavailable…”, she heard somewhere from the bottom of the car and almost cried out in rage, driving off to the DPD, where the team was supposed to be on guard, on watch, waiting for this call she just made, that no one answered.  
She hastily parked the car, got out and rushed up the stairs, pushing open the doors and walking up to the counter, the android positioned there at night activating the second she stepped inside.  
“Is the team here and ready?”, she asked quickly.  
“Good evening, Detective Carter”, the android said, “The only officers in tonight are the night shift, Officers Garner and Kyle and Detective Reed”  
Cassandra sighed and cursed, holding her head for a moment.  
“Fine, fuck, just get me Gavin if I can’t get anyone else”, she growled, moving and leaning against the counter with her back against it, tapping her fingers against the cold plastic as she heard the android woman tap on the terminal in front of herself, sending a brief message to Gavin’s desk to call him to the front.  
She waited, soon tapping her foot impatiently. But he took his time, whatever he was doing, it would have to wait, this was more important. The redhead huffed, clenched her jaw and turned around again, stomping right through the main entrance into the office space.  
“Gavin, get your ass over here!”, she called out once she spotted him sitting with his feet on his desk.  
He looked up, then sat up, a smug smirk forming on his lips.  
“Cass, decided to come back after all?”  
“Shut it, I need you”  
“Heard that one before”  
She rolled her eyes.  
“Outside. Now. This is about a case. This might be our only chance. Hank is unavailable and apparently my team thought it a good idea to go home” she glared at him.  
He frowned now, came around his desk.  
“You’re not talking about that red ice case, are you?”, so he had heard of it, even better.  
“I have about two and a half hours left to get ready for a potentially very dangerous undercover case at the other end of town and I only have…”, she looked him up and down, “you”  
“That’s generally not how you get people to help you”  
“Shut up and get in the fucking car”, Cassandra growled, turning and walking back towards the exit, actually kind of relieved to hear Gavin’s steps following her.  
“What’s the plan?”, he asked.  
“I arranged a meeting with the dealer. I’ll distract ‘em…make them bring me to their hideout if everything goes well. You make sure I don’t die before I get there. And get a team for us so we can arrest all of them. I’ll buy us as much time as possible, but you need to hurry” They walked out the front door while she talked, stopping at Hank’s car for a moment, looking at Gavin.  
“Alright, just one question.”  
“What?”, Cassandra glared at him, hand on the top of the car.  
“You said Anderson wasn’t available. Why did you come in his car?”, he rose an eyebrow.  
“Just shut up and get in will you”, Cassandra then growled slightly before getting into the driver’s seat again.  
She heard the car door to her right open and close way heavier than needed.  
“Jesus, this thing reeks of booze”, Gavin turned around and looked into the back of the car, frowning at the garbage scattered all over the floor.  
Cass just decided to leave him uncommented, bending down and stretching her arm out to reach her phone on the floor, stuffing it back into the pocket of her jeans. She took a second to straighten out her blouse, glancing over her shoulder to make sure her bag was in the back, that she hadn’t forgotten it at Hank’s place, she couldn’t remember grabbing it, but it was sitting just in the middle of the backseat. She let out a shaky sigh, then started up the car again. Gavin’s gaze laid on her as she pulled out of the parking spot and drove down the street.  
“You sure you’re ready for this?”  
“Doubting my skills as a detective now?”, she looked at him out of the corner of her eyes, “I’m more than ready. I’ve been waiting for this. And after all, it’s not my first case, don’t forget that”  
“I’m not doubting anything. I’m just saying you’re damn near shaking. You don’t have your team, you don’t have your mentor-“  
She cut him of quickly; “I’m way beyond training, I don’t have and don’t need a mentor anymore”  
“What about information? Do you know how many there are? How you’ll take them down?”  
“That’s why I’m going”, she growled, “Only chance to get our information. Only chance to bust them”  
“So you just-“  
“Gavin, shut up. This is my case, you’re an…an assistant. Just do what I told you and stop questioning my methods”, she snapped finally.  
The detective on the passenger seat just looked at her silently for a moment before directing his gaze out of the side window. After a moment of heavenly silence, her eyes fell on the street signs, sending signals of an unknown route and she cursed quietly, reaching down with one hand and pulling her phone out, pressing her thumb to the scanner to unlock it before handing it over to Gavin.  
“Go into my last messages. The address the dealer sent me should be all the way up there somewhere. Put it into the GPS”, she said, seeing Gavin raise an eyebrow before she redirected her gaze to the street.  
It took a moment, then Gavin spoke up.  
“Where the fuck is my car. You left your keys at my place”, he read.  
Cassandra frowned widely.  
“What?”, she glanced over at him.  
“Anderson. You said the top messages”, you could hear the sly smirk in his voice, “Why at his place?”  
“The dealer’s messages, you prick, stop snooping around in my private life”, she again shot him a glare before concentrating on driving again, “God it was a mistake to take you”, she then growled quietly.  
“Rather go alone and get yourself killed?”, he asked dryly, tapping on her phone way too much for her liking, but then finally moved, entering the address into Hank’s nearly antique GPS device.  
As soon as the route locked in and gave her directions, she seemed to relax at least a little bit. The GPS lead them through town smoothly, though she did take a few more than sharp turns due to her speed. She held her foot down on the acceleration, her fists clenching around the steering wheel. Nothing could go wrong this time. Not a single mistake, or it could mean death. Unavoidable, immediate, unforgiving.  
“You might wanna slow down a bit or you’ll kill us both”, Gavin’s voice drew her attention to him, he was grabbing onto the back of her seat and the door on his side…no, not so much grabbing as clutching onto them for dear life.  
She glared at him for a moment, then snapped the steering wheel around, as if she had lost control of the vehicle, only to see and hear the pure terror radiating from him, the terrified scream, sounding almost like a girl’s helped her relax even more and she couldn’t help but laugh, bringing them back onto their side of the road.  
“Don’t piss yourself, Hank’s gonna kill me if anything happens to his car and I think having it stink of urine counts in there”, she smirked.  
“…Wouldn’t even stick out in this rolling dump”, he growled after clearing his throat and straightening up, trying to appear calmer.  
“Hank wouldn’t appreciate you calling her that”, Cassandra noted, looking over at him for a moment.  
It took them a short while to reach the address…still they had plenty of time to spare when she parked the car in the shadows of a few trees, around the corner, far enough away from the spot they’d arranged. She looked around, removed her seatbelt and pushed the seat further back, to grant herself some space. Gavin watched her, eyebrows furrowed, as she reached for her bag, soon twisting the rear-view mirror so she could see herself. She grabbed some of her make-up, getting some eyeliner and eyeshadow, dark ones, making sure to smudge them while and after applying, giving herself dark rings under her eyes, making them look tired, hollow.  
“That isn’t exactly the look you’d go for on a date”, the detective commented.  
“Ha-Ha”, she glared at him, “I’m trying to make myself look more like…someone who’d actually buy drugs”  
She moved to release her hair from the bun standing high on the back of her head and then pushed her hands into her hair, wiggling them around to roughen it up a little. Then her eye caught something else through the mirror, on the backseat behind her. One of Hank’s worn out hoodies. Cassandra turned around, silently praying it wasn’t a DPD hoodie as she reached for it. It smelled of alcohol, had stains on it, she didn’t exactly want to know of what. And was plain grey. No DPD logo, no nothing. She let out a relieved sigh, though hesitated for another moment before putting it on. The hoodie was baggy on her, the hood went down to her nose, if she let it, the sleeves went way past her fingertips, she had to roll them up, the hoodie ended shortly above her knees, it was more like a dress, honestly. An awkward, ugly dress, admittedly, but the length fit just that.  
“Hot”, Gavin said, raising an eyebrow to undermine the meaning of his more than sarcastic statement.  
Cass ignored his comment.  
“Don’t forget…you have to arrange us a team. Stay out of hearing range, but somewhere you can observe us. Follow us, if needed, if he brings me anywhere”, she said seriously.  
His mood seemed to shift as well.  
“Yea, sure”, he looked at her, “You can count on me”  
Cassandra sighed, “I hope so”  
She reached into her bag again, grabbing her wallet and picking out what money she had, carelessly stuffing it into her pocket. Cass looked down, then moved and opened the car door, hunching over a little as she stood and shoving her hands in the hoodie’s pocket, giving the door a bump with her hip, to close it, but something stopped it. A glance back inside revealed that that something was Gavin. He had leaned over, pushing his hand against the car door, before now climbing into the driver’s seat, pushing the door back open.  
“Do me a favour, Carter. Be careful”  
“Mh the oh so hard Detective Reed showing worry?”, she gave a soft chuckle.  
“Fuck off”, he mumbled, but smirked slightly.  
“On my way”, Cassandra couldn’t hide a small smile as she turned again, but then stopped, “If…anything happens to me…I know you can’t stand Hank, but at least give him my phone? There’s some…stuff on there he’d want to have”  
“Stuff? Fuck, don’t tell me you-“  
“He’s my friend. He was my mentor. We had good times together. Just promise, asshole”  
Gavin looked up at her.  
“Fine…I promise”, he finally said.  
Cassandra nodded, then started walking off. She was a good while away when she heard the door of Hank’s car close, Gavin must have started following her. Good, the distance should be acceptable. She moved to the exact place the dealer had mentioned, leaning against the wall. The hood was pulled down to her eyes, her hands buried deep in the pocket…now the waiting began. She didn’t have a watch, no phone that she could read the time off, she just had to hope he would join her soon. For what felt like an eternity she stood with her back against the wall, silently waiting, until finally, someone approached her.  
“You the girl?”, a deep voice asked.  
Cassandra turned her head, looking him up and down for a moment. The guy was a little taller than her, slim, though his figure was somewhat hidden by the baggy jacket draped around his shoulders. The hood attached to it was pulled deep into his face, she could barely see his eyes and that only because she was shorter than him. From what she could see, his eyes were bloodshot, laying deep in their sockets, his cheekbones stood out sharply, similar to his jaw, which was covered in rough, black stubble. She watched him for another few seconds, then slowly nodded, pushing herself off the wall.  
“Got the money?”, he asked her.  
“Can I see the stuff first?”, she bit her lip, fiddling with her hands in the hoodie pocket.  
He looked at her sceptically.  
“Not for new customers. How’m I s’pposed to know you’re no cop?”, the guy crossed his arms, glaring down at her.  
Cassandra sighed, then moved, looking down as she reached into the pocket of her pants, pulling out the now crumpled notes, merely showing them to him, but refusing to hand them over, stuffing them back into her pocket.  
“You got any…special stuff to offer?”, she asked then, she needed to get him to bring her to their retreat, their lair, whatever it would be.  
He frowned at her.  
“I’ll pay in advance”, she said quickly, before he could turn her down.  
Now he hesitated, thinking for a moment and crossing his arms.  
“Won’t be cheap”, he warned then, “Menu alone will cost you. And our stuff’s high quality so that won’t be cheap either”  
“I’ve got enough”, she assured him again, “And I’m willing to pay whatever”  
He was kind of eyeing her up, thinking, until he finally agreed.  
“Seventy to see the boss. Boss can show you everything we got”, he said, holding his hand out.  
Once again she quickly dug out the money, flipped through the notes before handing him a fifty and a twenty. He took a quick look at the bills, then he nodded her to follow him before turning around, shoving the money and his hands into the pockets of his jacket, walking forward calmly. Though as he turned around, she could see a bump in the back of his pants, the tiniest notice of a gun sticking out from under his jacket. Cassandra tensed up at the sight, resisting the urge to reach for her own weapon, hidden under the baggy hoodie, in a similar position as the dealer’s was. What she did do though was take a glance back, scanning the area behind her before she set into movement, looking for Gavin, her only backup. It was only a glimpse, but she spotted him, he gave her a small sign, assuring her that he was following. At least, if Gavin was one thing, he was ambitious, keen on doing his job and doing it well. If anything, that could be relied on. She turned again, silently letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, hurrying up a little to catch up with the dealer. He glanced back at her, raising an eyebrow at her, but then simply continued walking, not caring much if and how she’d manage to follow. He lead her through small back alleys she’d never thought to have existed in this part of town, around dark turns and corners far away from any street lanterns or any other source of light. Still he navigated through the night as if his feet were carrying him all by themselves. Occasionally, Cassandra had trouble keeping up with him, momentarily loosing him around a corner, but she quickly got back on his track, until she rounded a corner, steps quickened and she bumped into him. He’d stopped dead in his tracks, glanced back at her for a moment, but left it uncommented, moving to open the gate that she just now noticed and he stepped aside, letting her enter before him. She walked past him hesitantly, looking around for a moment. They had entered a backyard, dimly lit up by the light that shone through the back window and the milk glass door. There was no grass, just naked, moist soil, a single, dead tree in the back corner. The dealer closed the gate behind them, then simply walked towards the door, opened it and stood to the side, holding it open to let Cassandra enter.  
“Boss, another special customer”, he called inside, then looked at Cassandra expectantly.  
She moved, walking past him and inside the house. It looked normal, honestly. Nothing special. The door lead right into a tidy kitchen, the front door was straight ahead, but it was boarded up from the inside, no one would be able to get in, or out, through that door. To her left was a living room that didn’t give the impression it was actually being used to live in, and beyond that an empty, unused dining table. It smelled heavily of smoke and alcohol…though the latter might still be the smell radiating off of Hank’s clothes. The detective winced heavily, maybe a little too heavily, when suddenly the dishwasher right beside her sprung open. The machine’s hatch opened all the way and someone crawled out, soon gripping the kitchen counter to pull themself up and out, soon standing straight. It was a young woman, probably even younger than Cassandra, pale skin and dark hair that was cut into a bob and bangs, the hair framing her face, hiding her ears, even half of her cheeks. Something about the cut was weird. She carefully eyed the redhead up and down, leaning back against the kitchen counter and folding her arms over her flat chest before her gaze went back to the man that had brought the customer here.  
“I thought I told you not to bring any more newbies here”, she said.  
“She paid well”, the guy shrugged, then moved inside the house, letting the door fall closed behind him.  
Cassandra watched him move to the dishwasher, now providing her a better glance at the empty insides of the machine…and of the hatch that opened a way downstairs. She frowned a little. She didn’t know of any cellars installed in these houses, not legally, at least.  
“What do you want?”, the woman across from her finally asked.  
Cass’ attention snapped back to her. Buy time. That was the most important thing to do now.  
“Well…what do you have?”, Cassandra hid her hands in the hoodie pocket again, it helped her remain the slightly hunched over position, make her look less strict, which was probably more realistic for a drug addict.  
The woman smirked slightly, Cass didn’t know why. She looked so relaxed, so safe in this environment. Then again, she couldn’t know how that woman acted in any other situation. Yet her calmness wasn’t exactly contagious. It was smug, worrying.  
“Anything you wish for, darling”, she looked at her, “Why don’t I show you the storage? Then you can choose your own stuff”  
That offer didn’t exactly manage to calm Cassandra down. It should, if she was actually here trying to buy drugs, so she tried to act that way. She knew, she should go, keep the best act up. But on the other hand, only up here she could have at least the smallest idea of anyone, anything arriving…and the chance to be heard if anything went wrong. The detective shook her head.  
“I…uh…wouldn’t understand anything anyways. Just gimme a rough idea of your best stuff and I’ll tell you what I need”, she mumbled.  
The dark-haired woman’s smirk faded and she narrowed her eyes a little.  
“Oh, it’s not that hard to understand. Actually it’s really easy”, she insisted.  
Cassandra watched her carefully. Out of the corners of her eyes she spotted a light, shining through one of the front windows, one of those facing the street, accompanied by the familiar sound of car engines. Trucks, closing in, stopping just outside the house. The woman’s gaze wandered over to the windows as well, and still she stayed disturbingly calm. The redhead tensed up slightly, gripping onto her own hand.  
“Friends of yours, Detective Carter?”, the woman asked then.  
Cassandra’s eyes widened slightly, only for a second, trying desperately to keep the act up.  
“What?”  
The drug boss took a step towards her, almost threateningly and she rose a hand. Cassandra looked at her, stepping back as she was expecting a smack in the face, but the only thing her opponent did was stroke her own hair behind her ear, revealing an LED, glowing calmly in a light blue colour. Now the detective’s face fell, she quickly stepped back from the android. She must have scanned her the second she stepped in, known her identity from the start.  
“Pretty convenient that you showed up. I can use you as an example. Your friends won’t save you. They won’t get to it”, the android purred.  
“Stay away from me”, Cassandra said in a weak attempt to order the android, but the only reaction she got from that was a light yellow flickering of her LED before it returned to it’s original colour.  
“Your kind has no control over me anymore, not for a long time”, she growled, straightened up and reached behind herself.  
Cassandra followed her first instinct, drawing her gun as fast as she could and aiming at the android, but her reaction was faster, simply lightly knocking the detective’s hand up, the bullet speeding from her gun hit the cupboards, then the wall, the loud bang echoing through the house. Even if she couldn’t hit her attacker, she heard car doors slamming outside, quick, heavy footsteps following right away, before a fist connected violently with her stomach. She groaned out in pain and just fractions of a second later felt the gun snatched from her hand. Loud banging against the door, yelling she could hear even through the walls, granted, those were rather thin. Behind the android, people started climbing out of the cellar hatch, crawling out of the hollowed out machine. Cass was pushed back roughly, everything was happening in a matter of mere seconds. She stumbled back, the air knocked out of her as the deviant’s foot met her chest. Glass shattered, somewhere at the edge of her perception, she saw a window shattering, someone jumping inside. But in front of her, the android pointed the weapon at her and before she could even really process what was happening. Two loud bangs, sharp pain in her shoulder and stomach, heat radiating from the wounds. And then her back hitting the hard wooden floor. It was as if everything was moving in slow motion. She felt her head knocking against the floor, another sharp pain shooting through her. She heard yelling without understanding any of the words, she heard more and more footsteps, some seemed to be closing in, some quickly getting away from her. Someone pulled and tugged at the android’s arm, trying to pull her away, but before she could react, bullets connected with the mechanical body, blue blood splattering all over the place, all too soon mixing with human blood as they as well were stopped by bullets. They fell to the floor, disappearing out of Cassandra’s field of view, which was soon completely blocked by a face coming over her. Gavin looked down at her, said something, but all sounds were dull in her ears, she only saw his lips moving, then felt his arm going around her shoulders, lifting her up. She felt blood seeping out of the wounds, soaking Hank’s hoodie.  
“I-“, she tried to speak, her senses finally coming back to her, but that only meant her pain became more present.  
“Don’t die on me, Cass, don’t you dare”, Gavin growled, lifting her up, his other arm under her knees and he turned, carrying her past the team and outside.  
He got her to one of the police cars, had one of the officers still outside open the back door and he placed her on the backseats carefully.  
“You better fucking stay awake”, he growled before moving back, wanting to get in the driver’s seat, but the officer stopped him.  
Cassandra could see them talking for a moment, then Gavin looked at her again before walking off, the officer got into the driver’s seat. She could feel the car shifting into movement…then she passed out.


	4. Chapter 3

Next thing she knew she woke up in a hospital. Her shoulder hurt, she couldn’t move her arm, could barely even feel it. There was a heavy pressure against her stomach, heat pooling around those spots. Cassandra frowned, trying to lift her head, but groaning in pain as she even only somewhat moved a muscle connected to her shoulder.  
“Hey, stay down”, she heard a gruff voice beside her say.  
She managed to turn her head that tiny bit she needed to see her visitor.  
“Hank”, she moved again, trying to sit up, but before she could even raise her head, a hand came down on her healthy shoulder, pushing her back down.  
“You’re so fucking stupid”, he mumbled then, “You should have woken me up”  
“You were sleeping”, Cass replied weakly.  
“So you thought you’d just go alone? Maybe you should go back into training, that was straight up suicide”, Hank growled at her.  
“It was our only chance”, she murmured, “And I didn’t go alone”  
“Reed doesn’t count”, he looked at her.  
The detective glanced over at him, then looked up at the ceiling again, trying to relax.  
“What happened?”, she wanted to know.  
“You got shot”  
“I know that. And I know I was lucky. That woman must’ve wanted to keep me alive…she wouldn’t have missed, she was an android”, Cassandra sighed, “I mean what…happened after they brought me away, did they find everything?”  
Hank looked at her.  
“I wasn’t there. But I think everything worked out. I didn’t get anything about anyone escaping. Most were shot down, the rest locked up”, he explained calmly.  
Cassandra turned her head a little to look at him.  
“What about the basement, did they find that?”  
Hank nodded.  
“There was a whole laboratory, storage, lair, whatever you wanna call it down there”, he leant over towards her a little, “How are you feeling?”  
She closed her eyes for a moment.  
“Like absolute shit”, she replied, “My head hurts…and my back…my stomach…my shoulder. My everything hurts…Hank could you turn up the morphine please? I need a clear head”  
“For what? You’re not going anywhere anytime soon and especially not working”, Hank rose an eyebrow.  
“I’m in pain”, she whined, “Hank please”  
“I’m not drugging you up, this is your punishment for going alone”, he said, standing up now, “I have work to do, without you”  
“Haank”, she whined.  
He stopped, turning to her again, pushing his hands in his pockets now.  
“Reed gave me your phone. The fuck was that about?”, he wanted to know then.  
Cass sighed, but then made a face as she more or less accidentally moved and pain shot through her.  
“Guess he took the ‘If anything happens to me’ a little too literal”, she mumbled.  
Hank looked at her, then pulled her phone out of his pocket and put it on the table beside her bed.  
“Hope you don’t mind I sent the pictures to myself”, he actually gave her a small smile.  
“Hey, those were supposed to be my parting gift in case something goes wrong”, she chuckled slightly, then winced in pain, closing her eyes.  
“Well, that means you can’t leave”, Hank grinned slightly, then he turned, “Heal up. And don’t you dare come back to work before you’re not absolutely well”  
“Hah. I know you’re gonna miss me”  
“I know I’m gonna enjoy some peace and quiet without you annoying me”, he mumbled before leaving.  
Cassandra looked after him for a moment, then she closed her eyes for a while to just rest. Her head immediately went back to that evening. How long had she even been out for? How long had it been? She couldn’t forget the face of that woman…an android. How could it even do that? How could an android stray from it’s program that way? How could a machine develop enough thought and free will to lead a drug gang, play manipulative games like she did with her? She couldn’t forget the LED, the blue circle spinning and blinking calmly as she aimed at her. She couldn’t forget the sharp pain rushing through her body…and that while only the thought of it caused her to reexperience it. Cassandra gritted her teeth, gripped onto the bedsheets in a weak attempt to numb her pain. Her eyes opened again, shot over to the morphine drip hanging beside her bed. On the wrong side, unfortunately. She couldn’t just reach over and increase the dose…not that she’d be able to actually reach it anyways. Just as she was about to lift her head too look for a button to call a nurse or anything, she heard the door open again. A woman entered, wearing a white lab coat, but she didn’t exactly look like a doctor.  
“Oh, you’re awake, good”, she said, closing the door after herself.  
“…Uh…excuse me, do I know you?”, Cass frowned, pushing her good arm down against the bed so she could sit up.  
“No, we haven’t met before”, she replied, pulling up a chair to sit by her bedside, “My name is Bea Ellis. I work for Cyberlife, well more specifically for Mr. Elijah Kamski, so…not for Cyberlife, really”, she started.  
Cassandra frowned widely at her, looking her up and down. She looked so neat and formal, under the pearly white lab coat she wore a dark blouse, a knee long pencil skirt, below that she couldn’t see, but she remembered heels clicking against the clean hospital floor when she entered. She had her short black hair tied up into a tight ponytail, her face laced with light make-up. Bea was truly beautiful…but something about her just radiated strictness.  
“What does…Cyberlife want with me?”, the redhead wanted to know.  
“Mr. Kamski wants to apologize. It was an android that shot you, a Cyberlife android. We hope you’re doing well and rather refrain from taking any legal actions against us”, she looked at her expectantly.  
“Uh…of course…not, I guess. The…android wasn’t acting in Cyberlife’s interest after all, was it?”, Cass smiled a little.  
“Obviously not”, Bea returned her smile, crossing her legs, “How are you doing?”  
“In pain…but I’ll stand through it”, the detective replied, “Could you do me a favour? Increase the morphine a little, I need some…release…it’s uh…getting harder”  
Bea rose an eyebrow but stood up.  
“Shouldn’t you get a doctor for that?”, she asked, walking around the bed to the drip though.  
Cassandra watched her.  
“Maybe, but I think I should know when I need more painkillers”, she mumbled, closing her eyes as Bea increased the dose ever so slightly and Cass could soon feel the numbing drug flowing through her veins.  
“Dr. Mills fixed you up rather well, huh?”, Bea soon stood by the foot end of the bed.  
Cassandra could barely hear her, her senses slowly numbing to nothing. But the name, Dr. Mills, still rung a bell. That doctor had treated everything that had happened to her, at least everything that required more than a band-aid or some meds. For some reason it was always that doctor, she couldn’t remember a single time that she would have been treated by anyone else. Just now she realized that woman probably had no business knowing that.  
“How do you know about-“, before she could finish, Bea cut her off.  
“I’ll have to leave you alone again, detective. Here’s my number”, she dug a card out of her pocket, placed it on the bedside table, “Give me a call if you need anything. And if you’re back on your feet, let me hear from you. Mr. Kamski would be looking forward to meet you”  
Bea didn’t leave Cassandra any chance to react, or reply and simply left the room. Cassandra’s eyes stuck to the door for a moment, before they slowly started to close.

_You really got yourself in trouble. I thought you were going to die._  
She was barely awake, more asleep, or passed out than anything else, she heard a familiar voice talking, but couldn’t tell whose it was, or where it came from. It was somewhere close to her. Her eyes couldn’t open more than a few millimetres, too little to be noticed, too little to properly see anything. Just shadows, silhouettes.  
_You shouldn’t have gone alone, that was reckless…Fuck, no it’s not your fault…I should’ve gone with you, I should’ve stayed closer, should’ve hurried more. I could’ve been faster and you wouldn’t have been hurt. I was supposed to make sure nothing happens to you. And now you’re…here. God, it’s horrible to see you like this._  
She could faintly feel a hand on hers, gently wrapping around it and holding it for a while, a thumb started gently stroking along the back of her hand. Then the blanket was pulled over her again, up to her shoulders, so it covered her whole. The hand left hers, but the silhouette beside her bed didn’t move.  
_You’re a beast, you know that. But, fuck, that’s why I like you. We could work out, you know…_  
A soft pressure came down on her head, gentle touches against her hair, then her cheek, stroking along her jaw before it left her completely. The person got up, the silhouette covered her whole field of view, bending over her and pressing their lips to her cheek, then they removed themself from her again and left. She faintly heard the steps leaving the room, door opening and closing again and just as she heard the click, she passed out once more. 

The hospital was boring, really, she hated being held there, but the doctors wouldn’t let her go, even though she claimed she was fine. The pain in her shoulder wasn’t as bad anymore, that in her stomach had faded almost completely. She could move just fine, well, her arm didn’t go quite as high as before, barely up to ninety degrees, but that would fix in rehabilitation, if they would finally release her into just that. Hank came to see her occasionally, but lately the number of visits had been decreasing. Her calls rarely got through to him and if they did, she didn’t get much time with him, he always had to leave, go somewhere, get to work. And after a while it started to hurt, when he didn’t come to visit at all anymore. At least not when she was awake. Though it seemed that every time she woke up, a new flower had been placed in in the vase with the original rose that had been there ever since she woke after her surgery. Assuming Hank put them there as an apology for not coming when she was awake was easier than constantly wondering who they should be from. The bouquet got bigger and bigger every day, until the vase was full and the next day…well, a new vase appeared. At first, she honestly thought it was sweet, but all too soon it became annoying. Someone coming to visit her while she was sleeping, without her actually knowing when they were there, or who it actually was, and even if it was Hank, him not taking the time to talk to him was starting to piss her off.  
Once again Cassandra was out of bed without the permission of her doctors, but there was nothing that could convince her lying in bed for three weeks straight was the best treatment for her wounds. With her good arm draped over her stomach she wandered the halls of the hospital, dressed in some comfy clothes Hank had brought her the last time he came to see her. It wasn’t exactly easy, walking around with the tension of a healing wound in your stomach, but she managed rather well, she had to say. Her feet carried her to the kiosk on the ground floor. She didn’t dare taking the stairs, not yet, so she quickly found her way to the elevator, pressing the button to call it, sighing softly as she waited. The ding of the elevator arriving snapped her into attention and she already took a step forward, though immediately stopped as she looked up.  
“Hank”, she looked at him.  
“What are you doing out of bed?”, her partner frowned widely as he stepped out of the elevator, making her move back a little.  
“I was just going to get a snack, the food here’s garbage”, Cassandra said, “Also what’s the point in just staying in bed, that’s not gonna help my muscles build back up. It’s also not gonna get my blood running enough to get anything circulating and get the proper healing started”  
Hank looked down at her, frowning, then he shook his head.  
“Then at least let me go with you”, he stepped back again, frowning as the elevator doors came to his sides and immediately opened again as they touched him.  
Cass watched him, then smiled softly and stepped into the elevator with him, leaning against it’s wall for a moment and closing her eyes as Hank stood across from her, pressing the button for ground floor. The elevator started moving and she opened her eyes again, looking up at the lieutenant.  
“Why’re you here? No work today?”, she hummed softly.  
“Later. Had to come see how you’re doing first”, he rose an eyebrow at her.  
“Finally when I’m awake, eh?”, she chuckled softly, but Hank didn’t seem as amused, rather confused, “By the way, the flowers? Getting a little much, you can stop”  
Hank frowned at that, looking at her with his arms crossed.  
“What are you talking about? I didn’t bring any flowers”  
Cassandra looked at him, then looked away, frowning and shook her head.  
“Didn’t think anyone else would come to visit me”, she shrugged slightly, then bit her lip.  
The elevator stopped, a quiet ding announcing their arrival at the ground floor just as the doors slid open. Hank looked at her for a moment, then nodded towards the door so she stepped out before him.  
“How’s work going?”, she asked him then, just wanting to change the subject.  
Hank walked beside her as she made her way to the kiosk, looking down at her for a moment.  
“Weird. Fuck, I was out for a drink last night and then this fucking android comes in and drags me out for a case”, he shook his head slightly.  
“Android?”, Cass rose an eyebrow, looking up at him.  
“Some prototype model. A detective android. Fuck that”, he shook his head slightly.  
Cassandra sighed softly, walking up towards the kiosk counter.  
“Let’s get a coffee and talk? I need some input on cases, I’m dying of boredom”, she hummed softly.  
“Hm…Guess I could take some more time off since I was out on the job late last night”, he said hesitantly.  
“Twenty minutes, one coffee”, she smiled at him.  
Hank slightly returned her smile, then nodded.  
“Fine…Alright”, he gently nudged her shoulder to move along the line, stepping up to the counter with her.  
Cassandra smiled, then turned and ordered them coffee and a sandwich and a piece of cake for herself. She leant against the counter slightly, closing her eyes to relax for a moment at least. Her stomach was aching from the movement, she really needed a break, sit down, or better lay down, whatever would let her relax her stomach properly. Hank stood by her side, she could see his worried glance down at her out of the corner of her eyes and she glared at him for a moment. He simply returned her gaze, reached for the tray as it was put down before she could even push herself away from the counter. Again, she shot him a glare, but followed silently to one of the tables. They sat down and Cass leant back as best as she could to relax a little.  
“So, late work last night, Android, tell me”, she said, reaching for her sandwich.  
Hank huffed, leaning on the table a little as he sat across from her.  
“Its name is Connor…’His’ name is Connor?”, he frowned, then shook his head, “Some kind of Android detective. Dragged me out of the bar for a homicide last night”  
“Oh, so it’s a He?”, Cassandra smirked and chuckled slightly.  
“I thought you wanted to know about the case”, Hank rose an eyebrow.  
“Of course, tell me”, she took a bite of her sandwich.  
“Alright…Homicide, Carlos Ortiz”, he started, “Kitchens a mess, a knife’s missing, a bat on the floor, victim’s in the living room, 28 stab wounds, the murder weapon is still there, but no fingerprints. On the wall over the victim the words ‘I am alive’ written in his blood”  
Cassandra looked at him, swallowing her food and then putting it down for a moment.  
“Relatively easy. Someone who knew him, he did something to them, whatever, probably made them feel like less of a person or anything. Unimportant. They got into a fight in the kitchen, I’m guessing…Ortiz was his name? ...used the bat to defend himself after the other grabbed the knife but didn’t have much of a chance. Ortiz fled into the living room, the attacker caught up with him and stabbed him. Must’ve been really angry if they stabbed him 28 times”, Cassandra said, “And then they escaped through the backyard”  
“Mh-Mh. No footsteps in the backyard”  
“How long was he dead?”, she wanted to know.  
“Uh. About two weeks”, Hank replied.  
Cassandra gave him a meaningful look, but he just shook his head.  
“That’s what you’d think, that’s what I thought as well. The android found out more. Said the soil would still show the footprints or some shit”, he said.  
“So they went through the front door”, Cassandra frowned slightly.  
“People would’ve seen them leave”  
The redhead huffed slightly and crossed her arms, making a face when she felt a stinging strain on her shoulder and then instantly unfolded her arms. Hank watched her, then sighed.  
“Alright, tell me”, she said then.  
“The victim was stabbed by his android. Abused the thing until it wouldn’t take his shit anymore and freaked out”, he explained, “He beat it with the bat, it grabbed the knife and attacked him”  
Cass rose an eyebrow.  
“And this Connor found out?”, she asked.  
“He analysed every little thing, it was almost creepy”, Hank almost smirked slightly.  
“Alright, and did you get the murder android?”  
“Detective Plastic found it. It was in the attic, hiding ever since it killed its owner”, he continued.  
“And you took it into questioning, I suppose”  
“I tried, it wouldn’t talk to me”, he sighed.  
“But it talked to Connor, I’m guessing”, she smirked.  
Hank glared at her.  
“Not so smug. Yes, it did. We got everything out of it, all stories of abuse, and its confession. It’s with us until it’s sent back to CyberLife”, he shook his head slightly.  
“Honestly, this Android really sounds like a capable detective”, Cass said then, chuckling softly as she ate the rest of her sandwich.  
“Maybe, but it’s no good at being an Android”, her partner grumbled.  
“Why’s that?”, she smirked in amusement, raising an eyebrow at him.  
“Doesn’t listen.”, Hank growled, “I told it to stay in the car, it follows me anyways, I told it to fuck off, it didn’t”  
“Mh, well, maybe it just doesn’t listen to you. Maybe it’s programmed to obey a specific owner, there are apparently some like that by now”, she suggested.  
Hank huffed.  
“Well, at least it didn’t listen to Reed either, not even when he held a gun to its head”, he mumbled then.  
Cassandra couldn’t help but chuckle slightly.  
“Gavin held a gun to its head?”  
“It tried to save the deviant from being stressed into self-destruction”, Hank explained.  
“Noble”, she commented, causing Hank to huff and roll his eyes.  
“Anything else new?”, Cassandra hummed softly, carefully sitting up to start eating her cake.  
“Not really, you haven’t been gone long enough. And as long as you still pull faces like that while moving I will personally get in your way if you try to set a foot into the DPD”, Hank rose an eyebrow, eyeing her up and down.  
“Then I have to get better at acting, huh?”, she chuckled over a mouthful of cake, though Hank didn’t seem to find it quite as funny.  
“What? I have to come look after you, don’t I?”, she smiled softly at him.  
Hank sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, but then nodded in defeat.  
“Yea, sure”  
Cassandra smiled, shoving another fork full of cake into her mouth. Watching her, Hank couldn’t help but smile softly as well.  
“I should get going”, he said then.  
“What? You, eager to work?”, the redhead smirked, humming slightly.  
Hank huffed, this time in amusement.  
“If I was eager, I wouldn’t have come here”, he replied, standing up and walking around her side of the table, “Tell me if you solve your flower-mystery”, he added teasingly, putting a hand on her shoulder.  
Cass smiled at the small affectionate gesture and she nodded.  
“Sure, and you keep me posted on that Android detective”, she smirked slightly, “Maybe send me a picture or something”  
Hank made a face.  
“I sure hope it was only there for one case”, he mumbled, then pulled his phone out of his pocket as it rang, frowning as he glanced at the caller ID and then let it slide back into his pocket.  
“See you soon”, she said as he finally turned to leave.  
“Not too soon!”, he replied, causing her to chuckle as he walked off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you guys know: I'll be stretching the timeline a little to fit everything in here.  
> hope you like it so far and sorry this chapter took so long, school started and I finished my book, which I can hopefully, hopefully get published soon  
> Alright, have fun with the rest of this xD


	5. Chapter 4

She made it as short as she could, releasing herself out of the hospital the very next day, she couldn’t take it anymore, despite her doctors recommending the contrary. It was the morning of November seventh, with enough pain killers to numb her wounds, she got a taxi home early, taking her time to change into new, more comfortable clothes after a long, hot shower, before cheerfully marching into her kitchen to make herself some pancakes. A proper, good breakfast was probably what she’d missed most. Then again, that was exactly the same thing she’d just said about her shower, and would most likely just as much be what she would claim when she got into her own bed again at night.  
She finished around ten am, maybe, she didn’t keep that much of an eye on the time. Of course, she was aware that Fowler wouldn’t let her work again right away, but she needed the atmosphere, she needed Hank, almost always in sight, even Gavin annoying her, she just needed her regular schedule back, even if she would just be sitting around in the break room all day doing nothing, that was all fine with her as well.  
Cassandra grabbed her bag, hanging it over her healthy shoulder, grabbed her keys and her phone again, stuffing the latter into the pocket of her pants before leaving her apartment. She took the elevator down, even if it were merely two floors and walked out to the parking space shared by the complex’s inhabitants. Rather automatically her feet carried her over to her car. Once again, she was happy about her decision to buy an autonomous one, she could easily get to places, even if she was hurt, tired or simply stuck somewhere else entirely in her mind. She pressed the little button on her key remote, smiling slightly as the car door slid open to let her inside, she sat down with a small sigh of relief, let the door close smoothly behind her while she logged the DPD as her goal into her GPS. The car set into movement, soon getting into the normal traffic and finding its way towards the precinct. All on its own it found her parking spot, turned off the engine and opened the door on her side to let her out.  
Cassandra took her stuff, took a moment to sort herself, straightening her shirt before soon enough walking up the steps and into the entrance area of the police department. She flashed the Androids at the counters a smile as she walked past them and to the back, humming softly.  
Hank probably wasn’t there yet, she thought to herself as she strolled down the small hallway, but before she could even just glance into the actual office, something else caught her eye. Straight ahead, Gavin, just leaving the break room. He noticed her as well, she could see the frown forming on his face even from a distance and he came towards her quickly.  
“What are you doing here?!”, he asked, almost sharply.  
“Nice to see you, too, Gavin”, she hummed, then shook her head, “I needed my schedule back”  
“You need to heal up properly, Cassandra”, he replied.  
“God, you almost sound like Hank”, she smirked, “I know you’re happy to see me again”  
He sighed.  
“You should be at home”  
“Since when do you care so much?”, she frowned slightly.  
“Since it’s my fucking fault you ended up in the hospital at all”, he snapped.  
Cassandra looked at him for a moment, then smiled softly.  
“You didn’t shoot me, Reed. The only thing that’s your fault is that I’m still breathing now”, she reassured him, hesitated shortly before moving to kiss his cheek gently, “And thanks for the flowers. If you had come when I was awake we could’ve gone for a coffee”  
She smirked slightly and winked at him.  
When Gavin simply stared at her for a while, saying nothing, she added: “Hospitals keep lists of who visits who…Maybe we still actually can go for a date or something, I don’t know, maybe it’s worth a try”  
She gave him a small smile, which he apparently couldn’t help but return.  
“Alright…”, she mumbled then, “I’ll have to talk to Fowler about my work reintegration now”  
Gavin nodded slightly.  
“Take your time with that, please”, he said.  
The soft tone in his voice was unfamiliar, strange, almost, but something she could get used to. Once more, she smiled.  
“Sure, Mom”, she said teasingly, then pushed past him and made her way into the office.  
Automatically, her gaze shot to Hank’s and her places. She frowned as she saw a man she didn’t know sitting at her, remarkably empty desk. She looked around, then walked towards it in a straight line. All her stuff was gone, even her nameplate was replaced by an empty one. It wouldn’t even tell her her replacement’s name, but as she got closer, she already got an idea. The neat business suit jacket had the word “Android” printed on the back, along with the blue band around his arm and, which she only recognized as such when she reached the desk, the small, blue LED spinning at his temple didn’t leave many options for his identity.  
“Uhm…hello. You must be Connor, I suppose”, she said.  
He, or it…no, how could she call him an it if he looked so…lifelike. Her attempts to dehumanize Androids, at least in her mind, always failed as soon as one stood across from her. He looked up, the LED flickered for a moment, he actually seemed surprised at someone talking to him, then he offered her a mechanical smile.  
“Yes”, he replied, “You’re detective Carter, Lieutenant Anderson’s partner”  
He’d scanned her, of course.  
“Yea…well, at the moment it rather seems like you’re his partner, huh?”, she gestured to the desk, smiling weakly.  
“I suppose so”, he said, “I’m sorry, am I occupying your desk? It was empty when I arrived. The lieutenant said I could have it. He must’ve thought you would be off the job for longer”  
“Apparently”, she said, “I mean, I still am, Fowler won’t let me work again yet”, she smiled softly at him, “How’s working with Hank so far?”  
He hesitated now, LED spinning, it reminded her a lot of a computer processing, though without the LED illuminating his temple he’d probably just seem like someone thinking carefully about their words.  
“It is…interesting, certainly. He surely has an…intriguing character”, he replied finally.  
Cassandra chuckled softly at that and Connor actually gave her a genuine smile. Fuck, he was adorable. Why would they make a detective Android this adorable? His smile was contagious, maybe he was programmed to have a certain charm? So he would be more successful during a questioning?  
“May I ask you something, detective Carter?”, Connor leant forward a little, resting his arms on the desk in an almost human manner.  
“Sure, ask away”, she hummed, grabbing a chair to sit across from him.  
“Your injury was connected to a deviant, wasn’t it?”, he wanted to know.  
Cass nodded.  
“Yea”, she sighed, “She shot me. In the shoulder and in the stomach”  
Connor nodded, then frowned suddenly.  
“You’re calling it a she?”, he asked.  
“Well, of course…the android…was female”, she shook her head, “I think, it looked female, I don’t know enough about androids to say if they can actually be considered male or female”  
He looked at her and nodded.  
“How ever you like it, I guess”, he gave her another polite smile, “And it…or she, was the leader of a drug gang? With humans following her lead?”  
“It seems”, Cass replied, “Has that ever happened before?”  
“No”, Connor looked at her.  
“Well, she had her LED hidden behind her hair. She was acting like a human…”, she explained.  
Connor watched her for a moment, then nodded.  
“Thank you”, he said then, “That’s quite a useful information”  
“Useful in what way?”, she chuckled softly.  
“The Lieutenant and I are dealing with all deviant cases. It’s my mission to detect their origin. To protect humanity from such like the one that hurt you”, he answered.  
“…What does that whole deviancy stuff even mean? What happens to the androids?”, she asked him then.  
“…We believe it is a bug in their program, a system failure that causes them to simulate…or at least think they are experiencing human emotions”, Connor explained calmly.  
“Human emotions?”, she repeated, “So you mean…androids deviating means they are creating their own will? Their own personality?”  
He frowned.  
“No. They’re machines, they’re defective”, he said again.  
Cassandra looked at him for a while, then leant on the desk slightly.  
“What about you, Connor? You don’t do what androids are supposed to do, Hank told me you don’t obey people”, she hummed softly.  
“I’m programmed to follow my mission, that’s what I do”, the android defended himself.  
Cassandra shook her head slightly.  
“But do you feel? Do you feel alive?”, she wanted to know.  
He blinked at her, seeming almost confused, at least caught off guard.  
“It’s not in my program”  
Cass shook her head, leaning back in her chair again.  
“Alright, cold machine, I get it”, she sighed.  
“What the fuck are you doing here?!”, she then suddenly heard from behind her and turned around to see Hank walking towards her.  
Cass smiled at him.  
“Hank! Just catching up with your new partner here”, she grinned at him.  
“You’re supposed to be in the hospital”, he growled, frowning widely at her, “You’re wounded”  
“Actually, Lieutenant, she’s in quite a stable condition”, Connor said suddenly.  
Cassandra glanced at the android and chuckled softly, then she got up.  
“I like him”, she said to Hank, then moved past him, “I’ll get us some coffee”  
Hank directed his death stare from the android to her, but didn’t say anything, just moved back to his desk, grumbling in disapproval.  
“Anything for you, Connor?”, Cass turned to the RK800 once more, he just looked at her in confusion. “Androids do not have to eat, or drink”  
“Yea, but my question was if you want anything”, she hummed softly.  
“I don’t have the ability to taste things”, he replied.  
Cassandra sighed defeatedly, shaking her head as her question stayed unanswered and made her way to the break room to at least get coffee for Hank and herself, though, as she did, she was suddenly stopped.  
“Carter”  
She looked up to see Fowler standing in the doorway to his office, frowning down at her, then he nodded towards his office, signalling her to come inside. Cassandra glanced back towards Hank again, but he didn’t seem to have noticed anything, so she simply followed the Captain.  
“Something wrong?”, she asked, moving to close the door behind herself.  
“Sit down”, he said, she did, “I didn’t know you’d be back so soon”, Fowler noted, raising an eyebrow.  
“I’m not really, I mean, I’d like to get back to work instantly, but I doubt you’d let me”, she replied.  
“You were shot”, he reminded her.  
“In the shoulder and stomach”, she added, “Yea, and I had a good doctor, it’s healed almost completely, wanna see?”  
She got up, reaching for the hem of her shirt, but Fowler put out a hand to stop her.  
“Please, leave your shirt on, Cassandra”, he said.  
“So you’ll have to believe me”, she said with a smirk.  
Fowler sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.  
“I’m just here to visit Hank and see my replacement. That was…really quick”  
“The android’s not one of us. It was sent to us by CyberLife to help with the cases concerning deviants”, Fowler explained.  
“And of course that’s why my desk’s empty”, she rose an eyebrow, “Hey, I’m not judging, usually cops don’t heal up that fast, or even want to get back to work immediately”, she frowned, “Actually, still no reason to clear my desk all together”  
“That’s because Hank is not going to be your partner anymore”, Fowler finally said.  
Cassandra stared at him for a moment.  
“What? No, you can’t just give me a different partner! I’ve been working with Hank for years!”, she protested.  
“Yes, and years ago Hank was an excellent cop. Now, he’s…you know him”  
“He’s still an excellent cop”, Cass growled.  
“He’s an alcoholic. He shows up to work late, if at all, and mostly drunk, he doesn’t take his cases seriously, he left you alone with a gang of dealers”  
“Bullshit! You know exactly how hard he’s had it. And he wasn’t the problem with the red ice case. The problem was that the fucking team I was supposed to have wasn’t here when I needed it! Reed was the only one there so I had to take him”, she huffed.  
“And that’s why you’re going to be Reed’s partner in the future. To be entirely honest, he requested it”, Fowler said finally.  
Cassandra looked up towards the office, towards Gavin’s desk, frowning widely as she watched him for a moment, watched him looking though files on the terminal on his desk, the one across from his empty, unused.  
“I’m not leaving Hank, I don’t fucking care what you say, I am and will always be Hank’s partner”, she growled angrily, then moved towards the door.  
“Cassandra. Hank approves of my decision”  
She froze, then shook her head, not even looking back at him.  
“I’m not leaving his side”, she growled, stepping out of the office.  
Her stomach was aching, she put one hand over it, gripped onto her own shirt and shook her head again before moving back over to Hank’s desk, the coffee was forgotten.  
“Hank, what the actual fuck?!”, she said immediately.  
He looked up, looked at her and sighed. Connor looked up as well, furrowing his eyebrows the slightest bit in confusion.  
“Cass, he’s right, okay? I can’t even look after myself, so-“  
“So that’s why I’m here as your partner, to look after you and make sure you don’t fucking get yourself killed”, she cut him off.  
“So that’s why you should not be my partner anymore. So you don’t have to look after me and bring yourself into danger. If you had had anyone else, really anyone as your partner for that last case – you wouldn’t have been hurt”, he continued.  
Cassandra glared at him.  
“I was injured because the team was incompetent, because they weren’t here like they were supposed to be. And because the leader of that fucking drug gang was an Android”, she huffed, “He’s putting me with Gavin, you think that’s any better?!”  
He stayed silent for a moment, looking away. The one breaking the silence was the Android.  
“Lieutenant, I just received some info on a deviant. We should go check it out”, Connor said.  
Cassandra glanced at him, then huffed before shaking her head and turning around.  
“I need some air”, she mumbled, then walked off.  
She did, she felt her head spinning, her blood pulsating painfully through the healing wounds. She rushed past Gavin, felt his gaze on her, his eyes following her closely, but she didn’t stop. Her feet carried her back to her car, nearly automatically, she got in, sat for a moment and breathed deeply. Cass closed her eyes, pushed one hand through her hair and shook her head before turning on the car and absentmindedly typing in an address. The car pulled out of the parking lot, while she pulled up her shirt, the heat pooling around her stomach made her think the wound would have started bleeding again, but nothing. She cursed quietly at the pain, closing her eyes and wrapping her arm loosely around her torso. Her head rolled back against the rest of the seat and after a moment she started nodding off and soon enough fell asleep completely.  
She awoke when the car stopped. What address had she put in again? Cass sat up, looked around. Her vision was all blurry from sleep, she blinked a few times until it cleared up and she found herself at one of the bars Hank usually went to. Jimmy’s Bar, more precisely. How long had she been sleeping? It must have been a while, but – the drive here wasn’t that long from the precinct…it was slowly getting dark, the streetlights had turned on already, the neon signs at the shops and bars flickered brightly through the early evening. Cassandra put her hands over her face for a moment, rubbing her eyes, then she shook her head and climbed out of the car, hesitantly making her way over to the entrance. She knew this bar, they knew her, she came a lot with Hank, made sure he didn’t drink too much, he didn’t pass out, brought him home. But she…she never drank. Her gaze wandered down to the little sign at the door that denied entrance to any Androids, it never failed to make her freeze, hesitate, doubt, even. Androids shouldn’t be denied entrance to any shops, simply because they were different, she was sure of that. She shook her head vigorously, then simply pushed at the door, opening it and she stepped inside.  
The barkeeper lifted his head once she came in and offered her a smile as he recognized her, but then frowned slightly when Hank didn’t enter right behind her.  
“Here alone? You?”, he asked as she came closer to the bar and took a seat on her usual bar stool, “Where’s the Lieutenant?”  
The bar wasn’t all too full yet, beside her there were just a few guys sitting in one of the booths way in the back.  
“Work, probably, with his new partner”, she huffed tiredly, rubbing her face slightly.  
“Hm…anyways, it’s nice to see you again, Detective. Hank mentioned you got hurt on the job”  
“Released myself out of the hospital just this morning. I’m better. I’m not working again just yet, and as it seems not with Hank anymore at all”, she growled the last part, crossing her arms on the bar and resting her head on them.  
She could see the barkeeper’s pitiful gaze rest upon her out of the corners of her eyes, then she saw him turn around before soon moving back to her, putting a glass down in front of her. Cass lifted her head, raising an eyebrow at the glass.  
“It’s soda, I know you don’t drink”  
She sighed, then reached for the glass, quietly thanking him and she carefully nipped the liquid, feeling almost relieved as she really just tasted soda. Cassandra sat up a little more again, offering the barkeeper a small smile and taking another sip. The door opened, she ignored it.  
“Cass”, she heard from behind her suddenly and turned her head just enough to see Hank and Connor just entering the bar.  
She let out a deep sigh, closing her eyes for a moment while Hank walked over to her, taking his usual seat by her side.  
“How long have you been sitting here?”, the Lieutenant wanted to know.  
“Basically just came in”, she replied quietly.  
Connor kind of stood behind them awkwardly for a moment, until Hank turned to him.  
“For fucks sake, Connor, sit down, yer makin’ me all nervous standing there like that”, the old man growled.  
Cass glanced at the Android over her shoulder, watching him flick his eyes from the seat beside Hank to the one right beside her and back, before finally deciding to take the seat beside his partner and awkwardly placing himself on the bar stool. Just…that was about the moment she remembered the “No Androids” sign at the door. She frowned widely, turning to the RK800. How had his programming not prevented him from entering? Androids couldn’t just ignore such orders, not those ones. Then again, she’d witnessed an Android taking over a drug gang, being in charge of a group of humans. This one was probably not as radical, but different than normal Androids never the less.  
“…Did you know yesterday already?”, Cassandra asked then, turning her head towards Hank slightly.  
Hank ordered himself a drink, his usual. Cassandra didn’t remember what it was, Whiskey, maybe, judging from the colour, but then again, she definitely didn’t know enough about alcohol to be able to tell. He took the glass, downed it in one and set it back down.  
“Lieutenant, I don’t think it’s healthy-“  
“Shut up, Connor”, Hank grumbled, then turned away from the Android completely and towards the redhead by his other side.  
“I don’t like Fowler splitting us up either. We’re a team, we’ve been for years and we shouldn’t just be torn apart. And believe me, when he told me I wanted nothing more than smash Reed’s fucking face in for taking you from me, but I thought about it more…and he’s right, he really is, Cassandra. You know, as much as I hate the prick, he’s a good detective, does his work well and he saved your goddamn life…”, Hank explained calmly, “He’ll be a better partner than me”  
“Hank, it’s not about who’s a better partner. It’s about who’s my partner. I’ve never worked with anyone else but you, from the moment I graduated. And I don’t want anyone else”, she replied with a sigh.  
“I can’t protect you properly”  
“And you think he can? You think someone needs to?”, she looked at him.  
He glared at her for a moment, then motioned the barkeeper to get him another drink.  
“He did”, he said then, “He saved your life, while I was passed out drunk at home.”  
Cassandra could only sigh deeply at that. For a moment there was silence between them, Hank downed his second drink while Cass sipped her soda, Connor watching them carefully.  
“You’re not drinking alcohol”, the android said suddenly, seeming confused.  
“No, she never does”, Hank growled over his glass.  
“May I ask why? It seems to be a popular coping mechanism for your profession”, Connor looked over at her.  
Hank shot him a glare, then glanced over at Cass for a moment.  
“Because she doesn’t want to end up like me”, he finally replied, finishing his next glass.  
Connor frowned, glancing past Hank at Cassandra, seemingly expecting an answer from her as well, but if that was what he was waiting for, she could only wish him a lot of patience. She finished her drink, set the empty glass down and reached for her purse, but Hank grabbed her arm slightly, stopping her from paying.  
“Put it on my tab”, he told the bartender.  
“Hank”, Cass protested weakly, she was still tired.  
He just shook his head.  
“Our last drink as partners, so it’s on me, just like our first”, he offered a weak smile, which she couldn’t bring herself to return.  
She put a hand on his shoulder in a motion of goodbye, then she turned to Connor.  
“Promise to take care of him for me, okay?”, she said.  
“I assure you, I will bring him home safely”, he replied, but the from the look on her face It seemed he soon could tell that she wasn’t talking about tonight and he nodded softly at her.  
She looked at him thankfully, then squeezed Hank’s shoulder affectionately before turning around and leaving the bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry chapters are coming so irregularly, school is keeping me pretty busy XD  
> I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction nevertheless  
> Look forward to a lot more Connor and potentially a little smut in the next chapter xD


	6. Chapter 5

Connor watched Cassandra leave, his gaze lingering on the door until It stilled, resting quietly in the doorframe. Out of the corners of his eyes he could see Hank ordering another drink before raising his gaze to the sports game playing on the TV screen over the bar.  
“…Hey, Connor…Thank you”, his partner then said.  
Connor shifted his gaze to him, tilting his head to the side a little.  
“’Thank you’ for what?”, he wanted to know.  
“You know for what. If you hadn’t saved my life earlier, you would’ve caught that deviant”, Hank mumbled over a sip of whiskey.  
The android shook his head slightly.  
“That’s nothing to thank me for, Lieutenant. We’re partners”, he said.  
Hank turned his head to him now and apparently couldn’t help but smile slightly, just for a second, before he turned away to try and hide it, but of course Connor had already seen it.  
“Now, Lieutenant, may I ask you a personal question`”  
Hank merely glanced at him, raising an eyebrow and then taking another sip of his drink.  
“You like your personal questions, huh? Go ahead”, he mumbled.  
“Of what nature is your relationship with Detective Cater?”, he asked, rather carefully.  
This earned him a frown from the older Lieutenant.  
“Why are you asking that?”  
“Because she seems to be a big part of your life. And knowing about your usual relationships with your partners might make working with you easier”, Connor explained.  
Hank sighed.  
“I trained her, she was my partner from the moment she joined the force, I helped her climb up to being detective. We spent a lot of time together”, he stated.  
“I know about that. I was asking about the relationship you share beyond your professional one”, the android clarified.  
Hank defeatedly set his glass down and turned to him finally.  
“As I said, we spent a lot of time together. She stuck with me through hard times, I helped her through some of her own, we went out a lot together, drinking, she made sure I didn’t drink myself to death or end in a car crash on the way home cuz I was too drunk to drive. She’s…family…like the daughter I never had, you know”, he explained, his voice, turning kind of sentimental as he reminisced, Connor hadn’t heard that tone from him before.  
“And she herself never drank?”, Connor asked again.  
Hank shook his head.  
“Not one drop of alcohol. As far as I know she never did before I knew her either”, he mumbled.  
“Why? You said she was afraid to end up like you, what did you mean by that?”, the android’s curiosity was pretty obvious.  
The Lieutenant glared at him for a moment.  
“Now that’s a question you’ll have to ask her. I’m not sharing any of her personal details without her consent”, he said.  
Connor frowned, but nodded, seeming to understand.  
“I will ask her”, he stated, nodding.  
Hank let out a sigh, shaking his head and grabbing his glass again, bringing it up to his mouth and taking a long swig, emptying it and moving to order another one. Connor watched him, silently deciding for himself that he would have to stop Hank soon. For a while they were silent, Hank quietly sipping his drink and watching the game on the TV while Connor took a moment to look around the bar again, definitely not failing to notice the sceptical, sometimes hostile looks the other guests gave him. Connor had the feeling that Hank’s company was what was keeping him out of trouble in here.  
“…So what do _you_ think about her?”, Hank asked suddenly.  
Connor’s eyes snapped back to his partner and he gave him a slight frown, before returning to his usual neutral expression.  
“About Detective Carter? …She is surely…interesting? She reminds me of you a lot. She’s got your…temper”  
Hank laughed at his reply, grinning in amusement and then taking another sip of his drink.  
“Yea, she does…I rubbed off on her, I guess”, he smirked.  
Rubbed…?  
Connor tilted his head to the side questioningly, blinking at the Lieutenant. Once Hank met Connor’s gaze, he sighed, shaking his head shortly.  
“I’m just saying she’s picked up on some of my personality traits”, he explained, huffing, “Fucking hell, for an android you’re pretty dumb”  
Connor looked at him, then looked away, down at the bar for a moment.  
“You interested in her?”, Hank then asked after a good while of silence.  
Connor lifted his eyes to him again.  
“Wouldn’t blame you, she’s a beautiful girl”, he mumbled.  
The android watched him for a moment.  
“She certainly has traits that meet society’s beauty standards”  
“Fuck beauty standards”, Hank huffed, finishing another glass, “What do you think?”  
Again, Connor hesitated.  
“She is…nice…more than most humans I’ve met, humans rather tend to dislike me, or androids in general, it appears”  
“Can’t blame them”, Hank noted, already lifting his arm to order another drink, but Connor now stepped in, putting his hand on Hank’s arm and pushing It back down with gentle pressure.  
“I think it’s enough, Lieutenant”, Connor had closely observed his partner’s intoxication levels and now decided they were getting to a point Connor couldn’t account for anymore.  
“And that’s exactly the reason why”, Hank rolled his eyes, but didn’t resist.  
Connor ignored his comment best as he could.  
“I will bring you home, as detective Carter requested”, he said, standing up.  
“Easy, I gotta pay my tab”, Hank shook his head, but stood up, complying to Connor’s request as he put some money on the counter and then followed the android outside. 

Cassandra got back into her car after she left the bar, sitting down for a moment to try and calm the erratic beating of her heart, ignoring the pressure behind her eyes and the tears welling up inside them. Hank wasn’t going to take her back as a partner, he had a new partner, Connor would be able to take care of him, and her? She was stuck with Gavin…no, it wasn’t him personally she had a problem with, no matter who would be supposed to be his replacement, she’d much rather stay with Hank.  
She sniffed slightly, then dug her phone out of the bag on the seat beside her, unlocking it and pulling up Gavin’s contact, hesitating for a moment and then quickly typing out a message to him.  
_‘We need to talk, rather sooner than later, preferably now’_  
Her finger hovered over the send button for a while, until her unsteady shaking caused the tiniest touch, sending the message. She made a face, then sighed loudly, shaking her head and leaning back in her seat, closing her eyes as she held onto her phone and waited for Gavin’s reply. It was a minute or so until she felt her phone buzzing in her hand. Her eyes instantly flicked down to it, skimming over the message quickly.  
_‘Im still at work but just finishing up’_  
Cassandra sighed a little, quickly typing her reply.  
_‘You at the precinct?’_  
This one was faster, the status update right beneath Gavin’s name change from ‘online’ to ‘typing…’, only to snap back seconds later as his message popped up.  
_‘Yea but im just about to leave’_  
Cassandra bit her lip slightly, then sighed quietly.  
_‘Wait, I’m coming to pick you up’_ She sent the message, then put her phone aside without waiting for any sort of reply, starting her car up and quickly selecting the DPD as her goal.  
As her car rolled into the parking lot right before the precinct, she watched the front door, biting her lip slightly as she saw Gavin waiting right at the entrance. He shifted into movement once her car started slowing down and came towards it, opening the passenger door and getting in. He turned towards her, raising an eyebrow.  
“What did you need to talk about so badly?”, he wanted to know, turning towards her.  
“Can we go to your place? We’ll need some time and that’ll be…a lot more comfortable than sitting around here in the car in front of the precinct”  
Gavin watched her for a moment.  
“Are you sure?”, he wanted to know.  
“Yea, it’ll just be a talk, nothing more”, she gave him a glare.  
He smirked slightly, looking away though, then he typed his address into the GPS.  
“We’ll see where it gets us”, he hummed.  
“Gavinnn…”, she groaned, “I had a rough day, please”  
“I’m just saying, I could help you”, he winked at her.  
Cassandra glared at him.  
“Fuck, get out”, she growled then.  
“No, no, sorry, okay?”, he laughed, “We were just starting to get somewhere were we? My place and we talk, nothing more. You can leave whenever you want, alright?”  
Cass closed her eyes and sighed deeply.  
“Alright…”, she started the car again and let it roll back out onto the street, leaning back and slightly pushing a hand through her hair.  
For a moment they both were silent, Gavin took a moment to look around inside her car, turning to look into the backseat, Cass could only guess what he was thinking, probably how her backseat seemed so much neater than the one in Hank’s car. And then, out of the corner of her eyes, she saw him frowning. She followed his gaze, landing on the sweatshirt that was obviously not hers and most likely not a woman’s.  
“Jeez, I should give that back to Hank…”, she mumbled, sighing.  
Gavin gave her that look again.  
“What? You know I care for him…make sure he gets home safe when he got drunk”, Cassandra explained.  
“Just making sure you’re not fucking the old man as well”  
“Gavin, we’ve been over this”  
“I don’t think we have”, he replied.  
“Well, we don’t have to. There’s nothing, Hank’s like a father to me”, she protested.  
“Some guys like being called ‘daddy’”  
“Ew”, she commented. “And even if there was something, with no matter who, it’d be none of your business”, she added then.  
“Hey, you’re the one who invited me to a date”, he rose an eyebrow.  
“This is not a date”  
“I’m not talking about this”, he looked at her.  
She returned his look, then sighed.  
“Alright, fine, but an invitation…or…it was rather giving in to your begging, doesn’t mean I’m yours or anything. Yea, we have fun together and all, but this is just…was always just…sex”  
He actually seemed hurt for a moment, diverting his gaze from her and instead looking out of the window.  
“That what you wanted to talk about?”, he asked then.  
“No, it’s…that’s not it”, Cassandra leant back, closing her eyes, “And you know, I’m not saying it won’t ever be more than that, but for now it’s just that”  
Gavin looked at her again, but his gaze was noticeably colder than it had been in the beginning. They drove in silence for a while, until the car pulled up to the sidewalk, stopping in front of the house. He hesitated, then turned to her completely again.  
“Let’s get inside”, he suggested.  
Cass nodded slowly, then heavily breathed out some air she didn’t realize she had been holding and pushed a hand through her hair, the red curls falling over her shoulders messily. She noticed him moving, reaching over to her and he pushed her hair behind her ear before stroking along her cheek and jaw all too gently.  
“Let’s go in”, he repeated and again, she nodded, but this time actually moved to leave her car.  
He got out along with her, walking towards his front door already while she was busy locking her car. He lead her inside, closing the door after them and turning on the lights as he kicked off his shoes and hung his coat up at the wall.  
“Make yourself feel home”, he said, once again earning merely a nod from his company.  
Cassandra looked around, running her hand along the dresser right by the door, then moved to take her own shoes and coat off, shoving her shoes into a corner and hanging the coat up right beside the detective’s. He watched her for a moment, then gently put his hand on her shoulder blade and leading her into his living room. She looked at him, then looked around again. His home was neat, a lot tidier than she had expected. Yet it felt…impersonal. There were no pictures, no decorations, merely empty furniture, a couch, across from it a TV on a small dresser, further back an open kitchen, to their left a small dining table with just two chairs. And through the back of the kitchen a small hallway lead to further rooms, through a half open door she could see parts of a bed and for a moment it seemed like there was something moving in…or on it.  
“Sit down”, Gavin said, then went on to the kitchen.  
Cassandra looked after him, then moved and sat on the couch, crossing her legs. She could feel a tug in her shoulder, frowning as she reached up and massaged the aching spot, the healing wound.  
“You want a drink?”, she heard and turned around to look at the detective, finding him already holding two glasses and just getting a bottle of tequila.  
“No, I don’t…No, thank you”, she replied.  
Gavin stopped and rose an eyebrow.  
“C’mon, I told you I wouldn’t try anything”  
“That’s not it”, she turned away.  
“Then what’s the problem? You sure look like you could need one today”, he stated.  
“I don’t”, she simply said, “You done now? Can we talk? Please?”  
Gavin sighed, finished pouring his own glass and then returned to her, taking a seat beside her.  
“Sure. So what’s to talk about?”, he leant back on his couch, one arm draped over the back of it while his other hand was lazily holding the glass.  
“Work”, she stated shortly.  
Gavin frowned widely at that, taking a sip of his drink.  
“You asked Fowler to be partnered with me”, she said, “Why? What the hell did you say to him that that worked?”  
Now he hesitated.  
“I just thought, yknow…that it might be better for you”, he said finally.  
She shook her head, looking away.  
“How better? I know Hank, I know how he behaves, he knows how I behave, we know when either of us needs help or when we’ll be fine, we’ve been a team for years, he takes care of me and I of him, I…”, her head sunk for a moment.  
“You know I’m just as good a detective as he is. And I don’t drink”  
She looked at him again and rose an eyebrow now, her eyes quickly going to the glass in his hand. He followed her gaze and then sat the glass down on the small table beside the couch.  
“You know what I mean”, he added then.  
Cass huffed.  
“Maybe that’s exactly the reason why I have to stay with him”, she shook her head, “I’m not going to claim he needs me more than I need him, he would manage without me…more or less…Gav, please, I…I don’t need that kind of change in my life right now. Not at work”  
He looked at her, she could see the muscles in his jaw twitching as he pressed his teeth together, maybe in an attempt not to say anything stupid, then he sighed finally.  
“I don’t think Fowler will take back his decision now, Gavin noted.  
“You managed to convince him once, you could at least try, for me”, she looked up at him pleadingly.  
He returned her gaze harshly, then his expression started to soften.  
“Fuck”, he mumbled, taking his hand off the back rest and wiping his face, then covering his eyes, “You have no fucking idea what you do to me, do you?”  
Cassandra couldn’t help but chuckle softly now.  
“Oh, I’m sure I’ve got a pretty clear idea of that”, she hummed softly.  
Gavin glanced at her through his slightly parted fingers, before removing his hand from his face and then, in one swift movement, pulled her over and into his lap, facing him and straddling his legs, his hands resting on her thighs and now slowly wandering up to her hips, gently pulling her closer. Cassandra felt her cheeks heating up as the tips of Gavin’s fingers dipped under her shirt, merely brushing against her skin, yet sending an electric tingle crawl up her spine.  
She couldn’t recall Gavin ever making her feel like this before…then again, the situation was different. So far, their intimate encounters had been…sudden, so to say, quick, impulsive. And over as soon as it had started, no foreplay, no aftercare, nothing that came close to…this. This was a different kind of intimacy, one she never knew she craved. The way he held her had always been…different from anyone else, always somewhat magical, even. It was what kept on pulling her back to him.  
His fingers softly traced up her waist, leaving an ice-cold trail that all too soon turned to heat. She shivered at his touch, closed her eyes and arched against him slightly, simply unable to resist the desire to be closer to him. His hands stayed in place for a moment, until she opened her eyes and looked at him. He had his eyes fixed to her, watching her every reaction and seeming rather pleased with the effect he had on her.  
Cass bit her lip slightly, then quietly cleared her throat, shifting a little in his lap.  
“…Uhm…thought we agreed nothing would happen tonight…”, she mumbled.  
“Well, nothing is happening…and besides that it honestly seems like you want something else”, he hummed softly.  
Both their voices were hushed, quiet, as if they tried not to disturb something between them. The feeling of his hands against her bare skin left a lot sooner than she’d wanted it to, stroking along her hips and then down to her thigs, gently gripping at them and pulling her closer to himself so their bodies were flush against each other. And then, barely a second later, he was kissing her.  
Cassandra didn’t hesitate to return the kiss, her eyes closing again and her hands wandering up to gently cup his cheeks. She could feel the light stubble on his jaw scratching against her palms, and against her chin, but the feeling was growing onto her. Gavin’s hands slowly trailed up and down her sides before finding their place on her waist, holding her to himself.  
Everything was so strangely soft about him today, his voice earlier, his touch, his kisses. She pulled back for a moment, looking at him and gently caressing his cheeks.  
“Are you dying?”, she asked him.  
“What?”, he frowned, then laughed, “No?”  
“You’re suddenly so nice”, she chuckled slightly.  
Gavin let out a soft chuckle as well, dropping his head for a moment before looking back up at her.  
“That’s because of my company”, he hummed.  
Cassandra smiled softly.  
“Stop it…”, she gently pushed a hand through his hair, straightening out some stray strands.  
“Stop what? Hm?”, he purred to her, moving in and gently placing his lips at her neck.  
“This…”, she tilted her head back though to give him better access to her skin, closing her eyes as his beard scratched against her throat, “God, you’re such an idiot…”  
“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for something just like this…”, he mumbled, his voice vibrating at her skin.  
“This, really?”, she asked half-heartedly, her fingers tangling in his hair, “Isn’t this…like…lame?”  
“This is real intimacy”, he replied, kissing her jaw gently.  
“Real intimacy? Guess then I’ve never really been intimate before…”, she stated, chuckling as she didn’t really think about it.  
He pulled back, raising an eyebrow.  
“Never just this?”  
“Nah, why? Highschool guys aren’t really into all that slow cuddly-kissy stuff”, Cass looked at him now.  
“You’re telling me you didn’t have anyone since highschool?”, Gavin couldn’t help but smirk slightly.  
“I was busy learning. I didn’t have time for dates. Or a boyfriend”, she shrugged slightly, “Not to say you would be…no, that you haven’t quite earned yet”  
“Yet”, he repeated, smirking.  
“It might not be as impossible as it was before”, she loosely wrapped her arms around his neck, tilting her head to the side a little, which he seemed to take as an invitation to continue a  
ssaulting her neck.  
Then again, she didn’t really mind. His hot breath against her skin, the wet feeling of his tongue brushing against her occasionally. Fuck. She was turning to putty in his hands. His fingers broadly explored her skin, pushing her shirt up further, until they slid against the scar forming on her stomach. He seemed to freeze as she winced and he pulled back from her, looking at her. Cassandra bit her lip slightly, returning his gaze.  
“Still hurts?”, he asked.  
“It’s okay…just…long day, putting some strain…basically everywhere”, she sighed, letting her hands slide onto his shoulders, gripping gently, “Maybe…maybe I should go home”  
Gavin looked at her, then let out a deep sigh.  
“Or…or you stay here. I won’t try anything, promise, I’ll sleep on the couch, you get my bed”, he suggested.  
Cass chuckled.  
“As good as that sounds, I’m craving my own bed”, she patted his shoulder gently, then hesitantly pushed herself up and off him, pushing one hand through her hair as she took a step back from him, yelping as she almost fell over something seemingly suddenly appearing right behind her.  
She managed to catch herself, though Gavin’s help as he jumped up and grabbed her arm wasn’t exactly unappreciated either. He pulled her back to herself and gently grabbed her waist, raising an eyebrow before directing his gaze to the floor.  
“Lucky, what the fuck”  
Cassandra frowned widely and looked down, spotting the big cat by her feet. It rubbed against her legs, purring softly.  
“You have a cat?”, she asked.  
“Well, obviously”, Gavin bit his lip slightly, “Uh…Well, Cassandra, that’s Lucky”  
“That’s a big cat”, Cass rose an eyebrow, looking at Gavin again.  
“Don’t tell anyone”, he mumbled warningly then.  
Cass chuckled, shaking her head.  
“Whatever”, she moved and gently kissed his cheek, “You know, this real you is way more attractive”  
She gently cupped his jaw with both hands and moved in to gently peck his lips. He returned the kiss, as small as it was, one hand on her waist, the other slid around to her back, softly pulling her back in closer to him and continuing to kiss her, eyes closed. She couldn’t help but smirk against his lips, eyes closing as well as she kissed him lovingly. His hands found their way below her shirt again, the lightest touch sending shivers up her spine and when he grasped at her waist she couldn’t help but gasp. Gavin pulled back for a moment, looking down at her as he gently gripped her hips.  
“Bedroom?”, he asked.  
Cassandra cursed quietly, then nodded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> to be continued in the next chapter xD  
> also, sorry that the Gavin part is getting longer and longer xD


	7. Chapter 6.1

By the time they reached his bedroom they had already left her shirt behind, somewhere in the living room, maybe, she just remembered it slipping over her head in between kisses. Once or twice they almost fell over Lucky, the cat constantly pressing himself between their legs, rubbing against them. Gavin pulled her with himself, pushing the bedroom door open with his elbow, then he lightly pushed Lucky out of the way. Cass chuckled softly as they turned around and roughly dragged her lips along Gavin’s neck while he busied himself with getting the door closed without Lucky slipping in. She moved her hands along his sides, pushing his shirt up. Cassandra could feel him shaking slightly as he chuckled, then he lifted his arms to let her pull his shirt off completely. He turned around to her again, captured her lips in a passionate kiss and gently gripped her waist, slowly moving her back and towards his bed. Once her legs hit the bed, she just let gravity take her, falling down and gripping him by his neck gently, pulling him on top of her. He caught himself with his hands on either side of her waist so he wouldn’t crush her beneath him and let out a soft chuckle as he looked down at her. She smiled up at him, absentmindedly playing with his hair.  
“…Fuck…I want you”, he mumbled softly.  
“Well, I’m all yours to take”, she replied, purring softly.  
He chuckled, dropping his head and shaking it slightly.  
“I’m not talking about…this, not sex”, he murmured.  
Cassandra rose an eyebrow, propping herself up on her elbows, looking at him.  
“I want you to be mine…”, he leant in, kissing at her neck, “I want to go home with you together after work, relax on the couch after a rough day, make dinner together, or go out occasionally…have movie nights”, his lips dragged along her neck, up to her jaw, lovingly peppering her skin with tiny kisses as he spoke.  
She bit her lip, letting out a nervous chuckle.  
“Gavin…”, she dragged her fingers through his hair, then pulled him closer to himself, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him tightly to herself, “Can’t we just…have some fun…as always?”  
“As always…”, he repeated quietly, then pulled back from her, sitting up slightly, he was straddling her waist.  
Cass sat up as well, moving and kneeling before him to be able to reach his face again. She cupped his cheeks, gently kissing him, then kissing along his cheek, back towards his ear and then to his jaw.  
“With anything…deeper…anything…exceeding the physical…can we go slow? Until I figured out what I want?”, she placed a gentle kiss at the corner of his mouth before dropping her hands to his shoulders and gently moving him, pushing him down on the bed and climbing on top of him.  
Gavin looked at her.  
“If you promise to actually go out with me”, he said, watching her while she straddled his hips and then reached back to unclasp her bra.  
“Of course. I already agreed to a coffee date, forgot about that?”, she purred softly, slipping her bra off and dropping it to the floor beside the bed, “And if that does well, dinner, sound good?”, she placed a small, gentle kiss on his lips, “Third date maybe movies, either at the cinema or at your or my place…what do you think?”  
The smug smirk was slowly returning to his lips now and his hands went to her waist.  
“Sounds good…”, he purred, pulling her closer and crashing their lips together.  



	8. Chapter 6.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SMUT WARNING  
> Skip to the next chapter if you don't like it

She cradled his head in her hands, her thumbs resting on his temples as she returned his passionate kiss, soon starting to slowly grind her hips into his, smirking as she got a moan from him. Gavin’s hands slowly slid down her body, gripping onto her hips and moving up against her steadily. She could feel heat pooling in her core, wetness gathering between her legs as he grinded up against her crotch and she felt his hard member poking through his jeans. Cass hurriedly reached in between them, unzipping his pants and shoving them down his legs, never breaking the kiss. His hands slipped around to her front, undoing the button of her pants and pulling them off along with her panties.  
“Suddenly so eager”, she chuckled, purring softly against his lips.  
He smirked, gripping her hips and then her ass, pulling her closer into himself.  
“Just for the record…I’m staying on top this time”, she then hummed into his ear, “You know, to get my own pace, to strain my wounds less”  
“Fuck yes…ride me”, he smirked, pulling her into another kiss.  
She kissed him passionately and deeply, tangling her tongue with his, reaching down and pulling off his boxers, tossing them off into a corner of the room. His cock sprung out instantly, brushing against her thigh. For a moment, she kept kissing him, then she pulled back.  
“You need a condom”, she mumbled.  
Gavin just slowly opened his eyes again, huffing softly as he looked up at her.  
“Bedside drawer, first one”, he said, moving a little and sitting up slightly against the headboard, crossing his arms behind his head.  
She climbed off him, shifting over to the edge of the bed with her hips raised for him. She glanced back at him for a moment over her shoulder and swayed her hips as she stretched out to reach for the drawer. Gavin smirked, watching her closely. Cass chuckled softly and just as she turned around again to find a condom, she felt his hands grip onto her thighs. Once again, she glanced behind herself, spotting Gavin on his knees behind her, moving close to her and stroking up and down her sides gently, pressing his hips against hers, his member sliding in between her legs. He bent over her, his chest right against her back and one arm wrapping around her waist, his other hand gently pushing her hair up and out of the way so he could get to the back of her neck, kissing and mouthing at it lovingly. She closed her eyes, feeling a shiver run up her spine at the touch.  
“Gav…”, she hummed softly.  
He moved, slowly grinding against her, rubbing his member at her crotch.  
“Fuck~”, she cursed, then moved, reaching into the drawer and grabbing a condom before quickly turning around, managing to wind herself out of his grip and push him back into a sitting position again.  
“I’m on top, don’t forget that”, she said.  
Gavin chuckled softly.  
“Then hurry up”, he smirked, pulling her into his lap again.  
Cassandra chuckled, opening the condom and then quickly rolling it onto Gavin’s fully erect member, giving him a few quick strokes and leaning in to kiss him passionately. He returned the kiss, moaning softly against her lips as she rubbed her thumb over his tip. Immediately he pressed his tongue past her lips, slid it against hers. God, he still tasted of alcohol, even if he’d had only a few sips. Though, that was something she could ignore for now. She wrapped her free arm around his shoulders, his arms were wrapped tightly around her waist while she held his member in her other hand, moving up and pressing against him, positioning his tip at her entrance. For a moment she pulled back, looking at him, her chest rising and sinking in soft pants while his hands roamed her body, stroking her sides, then gripping her hips forcefully and guiding her down on his cock.  
Cassandra gasped, tilting her head back and quickly wrapping both her arms around his neck as he slid into her. The feeling of him filling her like this was so…so like home to her. She’d gotten so used to it, he had the perfect size, not too big, rather thick, he slipped into her with ease, right down to the base, it felt as if he was made specifically for  
her. And by now he knew all the right angles, the right placed and the right ways to leave her a hot mess always coming back for more. Gavin raised one hand to gently grasp at her breast, bending down and capturing one of her nipples between his lips, flicking his tongue against it and gently sucking. She moaned, arching against him, giving off a silent plea for more. His free hand came to play with her other breast, gently pinching and rolling her nipple in between his thumb and index.  
She slowly rolled her hips against his, grinding into him to get just the slightest friction, teasingly slow movements that barely got his member moving inside her, but shifting just enough to give her pleasure, and apparently to elict a moan from him. Both his hands wandered back down to her hips, moving his own up against her and forcing her to move her hips more, encouraging her to start bouncing up and down on him. He helped her lift herself up until he was pulled almost all the way out of her before she roughly slammed herself back down, both of them moaning in pure lust. She gripped onto his shoulders, tilted her head back as she pressed her body close to his. Gavin took the chance to get at her neck again, kissing and licking and sucking roughly at the delicate skin. Again, she moved up and down, he thrusted his hips up to meet hers, pleasure shooting through her.  
Cassandra moaned, rolling and twisting her hips with every thrust until she found an angle that got her clit rubbing against him.  
“Ah- fuck!”, she moaned out, her eyes rolling back into her head.  
He came up to meet her every thrust, his hands gripping tightly onto her hips, then he captured her lips with his in a messy, heavy kiss. Not long until their tongues were entwined in a playful battle for dominance once again, Cassandra relentlessly bouncing up and down in his lap, moaning and panting into his mouth heavily.  
“You feel…so good…”, he mumbled, his hands still on her hips, assisting her in her movements.  
“Gavin~”, she whimpered and suddenly he seemed even more energized, she could feel him smirking against her even as he sped up, soon enough practically just hammering up into her while holding her hips in place.  
Her voice melted into a collaboration of ecstatic cries, moans of deepest pleasure and screams for more, yes more and his _name_ constantly falling off her lips in the sweetest tones. Cassandra’s fingernails dug into him as she desperately clung to him, leaving deep marks on his shoulders, almost tearing the skin. He watched her, biting back his own moans to take in all of her, her sounds, her expression, her breasts bouncing up and down with every thrust.  
“Cass”, he groaned softly, slowing his movements, but instead reangling his hips, driving deep and hard into her, right against that sweet spot that left her seeing stars.  
Her legs started shaking, holding herself up over him slowly became a nearly impossible task, until the only thing keeping her hips in the air was Gavin’s forceful grip at them, the bruising force with which his fingers pressed into her soft flesh. He’d end up leaving marks again, all over her. Bruises left by his fingers on her waist, her hips, her thighs, hickeys along her neck and shoulders alongside bitemarks that she wouldn’t be able to hide all too easily. But she’d be leaving her fair set of markings on his body as well. Light bruises were forming below her fingers at his shoulders already, scratches all over his upper back, tiny wounds left by her fingernails.  
She dropped her head to his shoulder, resting against him and turning her head to start mouthing and sloppily kissing at his neck. She moaned against his skin, her arms moving below his, wrapping around his waist for a moment before tilting up to grasp at his shoulder blades. Her teeth lightly sunk into the soft skin of his neck and she sucked and lapped at the spot, intending to leave a hickey. He moaned, then brought his hand up into her hair, roughly pulling her head back and pressing his lips to hers again, continuously driving his cock into that perfect spot deep inside of her. Moaning and writhing and grinding against each other he didn’t take long to come with a few particularly hard thrusts deep into her core, her name falling from his lips. She moaned out loudly as she felt him spilling deep inside of her and didn’t take long to follow.  
Her orgasm rolled over her in never ending waves of pleasure, she tilted her head back and let out a scream of pleasure, somewhere in the middle, his name once again. She felt herself tighten around him, her muscles spasming and her legs almost cramping up as her body moved involuntarily, pressing herself up against his chest as he rode out their joined orgasms, until they finally collapsed on the bed together, him falling back and her landing on top of his chest, panting heavily.  
Cassandra closed her eyes, tilting her head to give his slightly hairy chest a soft kiss. She could hear his heart beating rapidly from the physical exhaustion, could feel his muscles twitching slightly, his whole body. Her head was spinning, feeling as if she was high, and it was heavenly. Gavin’s hand came to rest on her back, stroking up and down a few times to help calm her. She rose her head a little, then rested her chin on his chest, looking up at him.  
“…That was good”, she mumbled softly.  
“Good?”, he moved his head to look at her, raising an eyebrow, “Just good?”, his voice was deeper than usual, raspy, and it made him sound just that much hotter.  
Cass chuckled, closing her eyes for a moment.  
“Amazing”, she corrected herself, “Definitely better than the last few times”, she purred.  
Gavin let out a soft chuckle as well.  
“I’m gonna try to see that as a compliment for this time and not an insult for every other time”, he said.  
Cass chuckled, closing her eyes and reaching up to gently kiss his chin and then along his jaw, down his neck until she reached his collarbone.  
“You know…resting together and cuddling after sex is a lot better than jumping back in your clothes and going on about your day”, she then hummed softly.  
“You were the one who kept on refusing my invitations to dates”, he noted, raising an eyebrow.  
“Because you were behaving like an asshole”, she purred, looking at him.  
Gavin huffed, looking away for a moment, then he turned them to their sides and pressed a kiss to her forehead before slowly pulling out of her. He sat up, reaching down to take off the condom, but suddenly frowning widely. Cassandra noticed his expression change and frowned as well, sitting up.


	9. Chapter 6.3

“What?”  
He looked at her, then held up the ripped condom, showing it to her.  
“Fuck…”, Cass bit her lip slightly, “Uhm…Hey, that doesn’t have to mean something actually happened, some couples try for years without condoms and don’t get pregnant”  
“Isn’t there like a pill for after?”, he asked.  
“There is, but I can’t take that”, she rolled her eyes slightly, “My doctor said I can’t take anything that in any way messes with my hormones…I don’t know exactly what it is, but when I was younger and first took the pill it really fucked me up”, she mumbled.   
Gavin sighed, then moved, getting off the bed to go and put away the condom.  
“Fuck you up how?”, he asked from the room right next door, a bathroom, she could hear the water running soon.  
“I don’t know, I for some reason stopped functioning. My whole body cramped up a few hours after I took it and I ended up falling unconscious”, she laid back on the bed again, “Then Dr. Mills said I should stay far away from any of that stuff”, she laid one arm half over her face, covering her eyes.   
Soon enough she felt the bed dip in right beside her, heat right next to her body as Gavin crawled over her and gently kissed up her body, slowly finding his way to her neck and along the way flicking his tongue against her nipple. She twisted her arm a little so she could look at him, then she tilted her head back to give him better access to her neck, letting out a soft hum.  
“Either way…we’ll know if we have to worry soon enough”, she mumbled.  
“How that?”, he asked, not getting off her neck though.  
“My period is extremely regular, always on time”, she chuckled.  
“Mhh really? Maybe you should tell me when, then, so I’ll know when I should stay away from you as to not get murdered”, he smirked.  
She huffed, but chuckled softly, shaking her head.   
“Oh, fuck you”, she mumbled, gently pushing her fingers into his hair.  
Gavin pulled back for a moment and looked down at her. Cass stroked his cheek gently.  
“Why can’t you always be like this?”, she asked softly.  
“You never let me”, he argued.  
She chuckled softly.  
“You could still be sweet and caring…and less douche-y…and less acting like I’m some kinda trophy you’re after”, she gave back.  
“Well, then why can’t _you_ always be like this?”, he rose an eyebrow.  
“Like what?”, she wanted to know.   
“Well, all over me, unable to keep your hands off me, cuddly”, he replied, smirking.  
Cassandra chuckled.   
“Alright, yea, I get it”, she shook her head, then moved and kissed him gently, “Now get off me, I have to get up before I’m too sleepy to”  
“One more reason to stay right here”, Gavin smirked, moving his face back into the side of her neck, kissing and licking and nipping at her skin.   
Cass couldn’t help but smile.   
“Gavinnn~ Get off!”, she laughed, trying to push him off of her, but he simply responded by resting more of his weight down on her.   
“I’m so tired”, he said, but she could hear the smirk in his voice.   
“Ow- Ouch, get off me- my shoulder!”, she said, but chuckled as he accidentally put a little too much pressure on the wound on her shoulder.   
He moved up immediately, looking down at her worriedly and she used the chance to crawl out from beneath him sitting up and pushing a hand through her hair.  
“I’m gonna go home now”, she said, climbing off the bed.   
“Oh, come on, please stay the night”, he moved, sitting by the edge of the bed and reaching for her hand.   
Cassandra moved back a little, looking for her clothes.   
“I need a shower”  
“I have a shower”, he said.  
She shook her head slightly.  
“And I need fresh clothes. If I turn up at the precinct in the same clothes as today next morning Hank’s gonna suspect something”, she picked her panties up off the floor and looked at them for a moment before shaking her head, “Tell you what. I’ll let you keep these”, she hummed, “If you let me go now and keep your mouth shut about tonight to anyone else”, she chuckled softly.  
“You really think I’d just start going around telling everyone we made love?”  
“Mh, that’s what you’re calling it now?”, she chuckled, “If you’d wanted to tell anyone you’re fucking me you probably would have already”, she smiled softly, walking over and giving him a soft kiss, unintentionally leaving him the chance to grab her by her hips and pull her to himself.   
She lightly wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him lovingly and closing her eyes for a moment. Then she moved her hands to his, gently breaking them away from her hips and pushing her panties into his hand, biting her lip softly as she pulled back from him.   
“Good night, Gavin”, she said softly, moving back and soon reaching for her pants, pulling them on carefully.   
The feeling of not wearing panties was weird, uncomfortable, especially now, but she just needed to get home, nothing more. She looked around, soon finding and grabbing her bra, hesitating before just stuffing it into her pants somehow and going to look for her shirt. It was on the floor in the living room, Lucky had gotten comfortable on it, all rolled up and just lazily lifting his head as she approached.  
“Hey, buddy, can I have my shirt?”, she had one arm wrapped around her chest now, kneeling down in front of the cat as he slowly blinked at her, then yawned and tucked his head into himself again, simply continuing his calm sleep.  
Cass sighed, then looked up as he heard a chuckle behind her.   
“Looks like he doesn’t wand you to leave”, Gavin was smirking at her, arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe.   
She stood back up and turned around to him.  
“…I can lend you a shirt and bring that one back to you tomorrow”, he suggested then, “Or…you stay here and go home to change in the morning before coming to the DPD. You don’t have to be in early anyways if you’re not working”  
Cassandra sighed softly, then walked over towards him, gently gripping his hand and pulling him back into the bedroom.


	10. Chapter 7

Cassandra awoke to the loud and obnoxious beeping of an alarm clock. She winced, opening her eyes, which she immediately regretted due to the sunlight flooding the room. God, why didn’t she close her blinds. That question was answered merely half a second later when she finally realized the warmth pressing against her back did in fact not just come from her blanket. Something moved against her, an arm reached far over her and grabbed the phone that dared disturb their sleep, turning it towards them. She peeked at the time, frowning.  
“Fucking six am? Are you serious?”, she groaned quietly, then turned around in his arms, nuzzling into his chest and closing her eyes again.  
“You never notice how early I arrive at the precinct?”, Gavin mumbled, his voice deep and rough from sleep.  
It sent shivers down her spine.  
“You never notice how incredibly unnecessary turning up early is?”, she murmured against his chest.  
“Maybe for you, with Anderson at your partner…”, his arms wrapped tighter around her, pulling her in closer.  
She couldn’t help but smile slightly as she cuddled into his warmth.  
“I haven’t woken up next to anyone in years”, she whispered.  
“Mh…”, he traced his fingers along her back slowly, “It’s nice”  
“It is…”, she carefully drew patterns on his chest with one finger, then placed a small kiss on his collarbone, “The…intimacy…is really good…It’s so warm”, she hummed.  
Gavin chuckled softly, kissing her head gently. She moved, wrapping her arms around his waist and tilting her head up to look at him, then leant up and kissed him gently. He instantly kissed back, gently gripping her waist, then he climbed on top of her, covering her whole and silently breathing against her neck, propping himself up with his elbows right beside her head.  
“What are you doing?”, Cass asked, chuckling softly.  
“Preventing you from escaping”, he replied simply, looking down at her, his face just inches from hers.  
“We have to get up”, she protested quietly, “I still have to shower and you have to get to work, don’t you?”  
“Ugh, work”, he rolled his eyes, dropping his head right beside hers, “My car’s still at the precinct…”  
“Take a cab”, she chuckled.  
“You could drive me”, he hummed.  
“I thought the point of that all was that we arrive at different times”, she gently stroked through his hair.  
“Ugh…if only you would let me yell it out into the world, I want everyone to know that you’re mine”  
“Except I’m not”, she shrugged, “Gav, I told you, I’m not your girlfriend…”, she cupped his cheeks gently, “But, I have to admit, you’re on a good way…”  
Gavin looked at her, then he kissed her lovingly.  
“Go shower, I’ll make coffee”, he said, rolling off her.  
“No, no coffee”, she said warningly, climbing out of the bed, “I go shower, you go to work.”  
He huffed.  
“What makes you think you can boss me around, huh?”, he laid back on the bed.  
“Well, I have something you want, so you better do what I want, sound fair?”, she smirked, then moved to leave for the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her.  
She showered long and hot, at some point in the middle, while she was shampooing her hair, she heard the front door close. A small smirk crawled onto her lips, satisfied that he seemingly followed her instructions and she rinsed out her hair, then soon enough left the shower, dried herself off and walked out to collect her clothes, putting them on and brushing through Lucky’s long fur for a moment as he came to her. She made sure everything was there, her phone, her keys, the rest was in her bag in the car. A soft sigh came over her lips, then she left his house, walking out to her car and getting into the drivers seat, starting the car with a soft hum and then pulled out of the parking spot, making her way home to get clean clothes. 

Cassandra had quickly changed, had breakfast and just all too fast gotten comfortable on her couch. She didn’t exactly feel like going to the DPD, like facing Gavin’s smug grin or his teasing just yet again, not to speak of Hank’s pitiful, sorry gazes, or her empty desk. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the thoughts. Fresh air, a walk, where ever, that was what she needed. Cass got a hair tie, putting her hair back up into the usual bun, then went back into the hallway, grabbing her headphones and her keys off the sideboard by the door and stuffing both into her pockets, the first more carefully than the latter. Soon enough she’d left her apartment behind, digging out the headphones and plugging them into her phone, scrolling through her music library with one hand as she fumbled the earbuds into her ears, waiting for the elevator to arrive ground level. She sighed, giving up on the whole library and instead getting to one of the playlists of songs Hank recommended to her, some of them really fucking old. He’d gotten her into music from his age, real music, over which she discovered some of her favourites, like Skillet and Halestorm.  
The light ding from the elevator distracted her from her phone and she stepped out, though stopped abruptly as the complex’s service android stood before her. She offered him a warm smile, stepped out of his way, though something was off about him today, there was no denying that. He stared at her for far too long, then suddenly gripped her arm, said something, but she couldn’t hear him. His touch gave her a light shock, nothing more than a metal bar would give you after you just took off a woollen pullover, but it was enough to throw her off rhythm. Slowly, he retreated from her, shook his head, and apologized before stepping into the elevator. Cassandra stared at her reflection in the elevator doors for quite a while, then finally sunk her gaze back to her phone, walking down the hallway to the front door of the apartment complex, absentmindedly pressing play on the collage of songs of her two favourite bands. She let her phone disappear in the pocket of her pants again and walked out, simply letting her feet carry her, get her mind off everything that had happened, especially and most specifically now, pushing the weird encounter with the android way into the back of her mind. For quite a while she just walked, wherever, switching her phone to airplane mode after Gavin’s third text, she just wanted to be alone with her music and the constant buzzing in her pocket was…distracting. Once it was gone she could just forget about everything, about the houses and parked cars she passed, only the music blasting in her ears and the sun warming her face mattered right now.  
She couldn’t really tell how long her walk was, she’d soon enough left her neighbourhood, left the streets she knew. Every corner she turned was weirdly determined, as if she actually had a clue where she was going. Cass lifted her head as she found herself at the entrance of a train station. Ferndale. Had she really been walking for that long? She frowned, shaking her head and looked around. Off to the side, by a wall, was one of those android parking stations, she’d always been wary about those, but her gaze was quickly caught by something else.  
A graffiti on the wall further back, a stunning piece of art, a boxer in the middle of it, the head of a lion to the right of him. She stepped closer, a small smile forming on her lips as she silently scanned the work, until someone bumped into her from behind.  
Cassandra turned immediately, ready to defend herself, but the man standing in front of her seemed just as surprised, from what it seemed he must have been pushed into her…that was…forgivable, she assumed.  
“Sorry”, he said instantly, their eyes meeting and for a second she just stared, mesmerized by the sight.  
His eyes were different colours, one clear blue, the other green. It might seem a little off at first, but it fit his overall appearance. He was tall, tan, wearing slightly ripped but still somewhat neat clothes and a long, dark coat.  
“I uh…it’s okay”, she frowned slightly, pulling her headphones from her ears and stuffing them in her pocket.  
His gaze drifted off behind her, scanning the wall with the graffiti, but in a different way than she had been, less interest more…searching for something…more analytical. She’d seen that gaze before, the first time Connor had looked at her, when he’d scanned her. Her eyes snapped up to his temple, half expecting to see an LED spinning at the side of his head, but nothing. She frowned slightly, then her eyes widened just the tiniest bit, she opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, he pushed past her.  
“I have to go, I’m sorry again”, he said, turning to her for a moment and giving her a weak smile, then he walked off.  
She could merely stare as he left. Had she just…met a deviant disguising himself as a human? No, that couldn’t possibly be, she must be seeing things, surely. In the distance she could see him hurriedly crossing a street, then he disappeared around a corner, leaving her line of sight. 

It was already dark by the time she arrived at Hank’s, walking through half the city took a long time, especially if she stopped at every single drug store pondering whether she should go in and get a pregnancy test only to decide not to after a good ten minutes. After all, her body would answer her questions all on its own soon enough, wouldn’t it? And anyways, women usually only went to get a test if their period was late already…so nevermind, right?  
She’d thought some more about the man – the android – was he an android? She still couldn’t really tell – at Ferndale station, he just wouldn’t get out of her head. She needed someone to talk to about it, someone who wouldn’t just turn her down or not really listen. Of course she’d considered Gavin, but for one, he wouldn’t care, would most likely just start ranting about how much he hated Androids again the second she mentioned one and secondly contacting him now, after last night, and after ignoring him all day – probably not the best idea. Well, going to meet him was the part that was a bad idea, she’d just end up in bed with him again, contacting him on the other hand, making sure he wouldn’t be mad at her literally forever, was another thing. But right now, it was her partner who she needed, someone who understood her.  
The lights at Hank’s place were out, his car wasn’t there, she assumed he must have been at work, or maybe out for a drink. Either way he’d get home sooner or later. With a sigh falling off her lips she walked up to the front door, reached up into the glass of a lamp up by the top corner of the door. She had to go up on her toes to even be able to touch the glass, not to speak of reaching the key hidden beneath it. Just barely she managed to grip it between two fingers, but it slipped right back out the second she pulled it out, falling to the floor with a quiet clang. Cass cursed, bent down to pick it up and huffed out some air as she stuck the key in its hole, unlocking the door and disappearing inside, only to instantly be greeted by the gentle giant she’d spent so many calm nights with, the St. Bernard nuzzling his face against her legs and wagging his tail happily. She couldn’t help but smile, gently gripping his cheeks and rubbing his ears.  
“Sumo, oh god, you wonderful dog, I missed you”, she smiled brightly, kneeling down to him and gently hugging him, “Where did your dad go off to, huh?”, she asked him then as she pulled back and lovingly cupped the dog’s cheeks again, wincing back as he tried to lick her face and chuckling softly.  
With a last gentle pat to his head, she got up again, turning on the lights and strolling over to the kitchen, though as she looked around, a light frown started forming on her face.  
Whiskey was spilled in a small puddle on the floor, the bottle still laying near it, not broken, but left open as if it had been forgotten. One of the chairs was thrown over, the place was an absolute mess…well, more so than it usually was. And then she noticed Cole’s picture on the kitchen table. She sighed softly, walking over and picking it up, looking down at the image of the young boy for a moment, then she moved, returning the picture to its usual spot on a sideboard in the living room. As she turned around again, she let out a sigh before moving to start cleaning up, at least a little. She didn’t want to know what Hank had been through the past few weeks, alone with his head, with his thoughts.  
More and more empty bottles, empty takeout boxes and even a few old leftovers that hadn’t found their way into the fridge found their end in the trashcan, Cassandra even took some time to wipe the floors, get rid of the stains left by alcohol and whatever other fluids had been spilled all over the place. As soon as she was somewhat pleased with the results of her work she stepped back and joined Sumo on the couch, gently ruffling the fur on his head, then she grabbed her phone, sighing before turning off airplane mode.  
Instantly it started buzzing, she feared it would soon explode with all the messages arriving all at the same time. Gavin, most of them, two from Hank, one informing her she’d missed a call…from Gavin. She let out a sigh, closing her eyes for a moment, then she opened up the chat with Gavin, scrolling though the messages.  
_‘Morning beautiful_  
_Im at the precinct now_  
_See you later?’ – 7:05 am_  
_‘Im gonna have my break at about one you wanna go out?’ – 10:28 am_  
_‘I talked to Fowler’ – 12:23 pm_  
_‘Want me to come pick you up for lunch?’ – 12:47 pm_  
_‘Or maybe coffee later if you cant right now? Bet I can squeeze in another break’ – 1:06 pm_  
_‘You okay?’ – 3:58 pm_  
_‘Ignoring me are we? Playing hard to get? :P’ – 5:39 pm_  
_‘Okay can you just please text me to tell me youre alright?’ – 7:02 pm_  
Cassandra bit her lip slightly, hesitating, then she closed the messages again, opening the other chat, Hank’s messages.  
_‘Not coming to the precinct today?’ – 3:08 pm_  
_‘Yoll always bre mx oartmer’ – 7:27 pm_  
The latter one had obviously been sent in a very much drunk state.  
“Shit, Hank, the hell happened to you…”, she mumbled, then shook her head, quickly returning to Gavin’s chat first.  
_‘Hey, Gav, I’m fine, just needed some time to myself, had my phone on airplane mode, I’ll be at the precinct again tomorrow, then we’ll have coffee, alright, loverboy? ;)’_  
She hesitated, then shook her head again before erasing the last word and the smiley. After all, encouraging Gavin too much was never a good idea. She had barely sent the message when she heard the front door open.  
Cassandra put her phone down and looked up, not being able to hide a small smile as Hank stumbled in, Connor clinging to his arm…or well, rather helping him stay on his feet, as she noticed at the second glance. She stood up, moving over to help the android. He seemed surprised to say the least when he looked up and spotted her.  
“Detective Carter”  
She smiled softly, moving to Hank’s other side, supporting her drunk off his ass partner with an arm around his back.  
“Let’s uhm…get him to his bed I guess, huh?”, she said, Connor nodded and they started walking over towards the bedroom.  
Hank barely lifted his head, glancing at her.  
“The fuck are you doing here”, he grumbled.  
“I needed someone to talk and you were the best choice…”, she said, “But not in this state”, she chuckled softly.  
Hank huffed, leaning on them as he stumbled over his own feet, presumably.  
“We had a case”, Connor mentioned, “And after he insisted on a visit to a bar”  
“Typical”, Cassandra hummed.  
“Shut up”, Hank mumbled in between.  
Cass couldn’t help but smile slightly, they got Hank into the bedroom.  
“Can you undress yourself, Lieutenant?”, she asked teasingly, her partner just growled quietly.  
“I’ll deal with it”, Connor said.  
Cassandra looked over at him, smiling slightly, though that faded as soon as she noticed the slowly drying Thirium staining his face, the white outline of a wound scraped over his cheek. She’d have to worry about that in a minute, now she just nodded softly at his suggestion.  
“Thank you”, she sat Hank down on the bed with him, then she turned to leave the room.  
The light buzzing quickly got her attention again and she took it out, skimming over the message she got.  
_‘Its still not too late for dinner ;)’_  
She chuckled softly and shook her head.  
_‘Got stuff to do, maybe some other time, but coffee tomorrow!’_ , she typed out, hit send before she heard Hank’s bedroom door behind her.  
She turned around again, facing the android.  
“Now about you”, she stepped closer to him, cupping his cheeks slightly worried, wiping at the Thirium carefully, “What happened?”  
Connor seemed to freeze at her touch, a way too human reaction for a machine like him.  
“I…”, he actually hesitated, “We were out on a case, as I said before…It was a little more complicated. A man was killed, in the room with him a deactivated and damaged android, another one apparently was with him before. So we go looking for that deviant and find it, and another one. They attacked us, we weren’t prepared for it. They got a few hits on me, but I’m fine”  
Cassandra looked at him.  
“Let’s sit down, okay?”, she lead him over to the couch, gently shooing Sumo to the side a little so they could both sit down.  
The android was surprisingly easy to handle, he wordlessly followed her silent instructions, the gentle pushes to get him to sit and stay down, then she went to get a paper towel, the most and least she could do was getting the blue blood out of his face. He watched her carefully as she returned and sat down beside him, closing his eyes as her hands rose to his face and she started wiping off the Thirium as gently as she could.  
“This is not…”  
“Did the deviants get away?”, she asked before he could finish his sentence.  
He hesitated.  
“They…attacked me”, he started, “I had my gun, I aimed at them…but I didn’t shoot”  
Cassandra looked at him for a moment, but let him continue.  
“Then she told us what happened. She watched the other android get beaten to death and got scared…she was defending herself…she and the other deviant…”, he frowned, “Seemed…In love”  
She looked at Connor for a moment, then chuckled softly, putting aside the blue stained paper towel.  
“Thought you didn’t believe androids could feel anything”, she teased.  
“They can’t. It’s not real. It’s…simulated, the impression of emotions is caused by multiple, confusing and overwhelming orders sent to its control unit”, he said, but Cassandra could clearly see his doubts in those words he’d believed in with such confidence just the day before.  
She watched him, then stroked his cheek gently in a calming motion.  
“Okay, it’s okay…what did Hank say about it?”, she wanted to know them.  
Connor shook his head for a moment.  
“Hank thought they were in love. He said it was good I did not shoot them. He asked me why I didn’t”  
“And…why didn’t you? It would have just been self-defence wouldn’t it?”, Cassandra looked at him, tilting her head to the side a little.  
“I don’t know”, he frowned, looking away.  
Cassandra bit her lip slightly as she watched him, his LED was spinning wildly, momentarily flashing yellow, just supporting his somewhat distressed expression.  
Admittedly, he was beautiful, truly, a perfect being, made to be admired. His hair seemed so unnaturally soft, she just wanted to drive her hands into it, ruffle it, messy it up to destroy his ever-neat, perfectly groomed appearance. She couldn’t help but wonder how he would look without the jacket, the tie loosened, the top buttons of his shirt undone.  
She looked away, trying to get rid of those thoughts and she stood up.  
“I need some water”, she stated, then walked towards the kitchen, “Do you want anything?”  
Connor looked up, his eyes following her.  
“No, nothing. Thank you”  
She smiled softly at his polite reply, grabbing a glass and just filling it with tap water, taking a sip as she slightly leant on the kitchen counter.  
“…Detective Reed is apparently requiring your company”, Connor suddenly said.  
Cass turned around, eyes widening a little as she saw him holding her phone. She put the glass down quickly and rushed over, snatching the phone out of his hands and staring down at Gavin’s messages, not trusting him not to write anything dirty.  
_‘Aw come on_  
_Youd love the dessert I got in mind for you ;)’_  
Cassandra sighed softly in relief, shaking her head and letting the phone disappear into the pocket of her pants.  
“Privacy, Connor”, she sighed.  
“I apologize…I assume you and the detective share a relationship largely exceeding the professional?”, he asked.  
She glared at him.  
“We don’t”, again she let out a sigh, moved to sit beside Connor again, “Gavin is…what we ‘share’ is solely physical, you see?”, she bit her lip slightly.  
“You seem like something is bothering you…I’m sorry, I’m not aware of the ins and outs of human relationships”, he said.  
“It’s nothing about me and Gavin…well, it kind of is”, she shook her head, “I…Fuck, Connor, you have to promise not to tell anyone about this, especially what I’m going to tell you about now”  
Connor looked at her for a moment, then nodded.  
“Promise”, she demanded.  
“I promise”, Connor said and Cassandra nodded softly, letting out a shaky breath.  
“After I left the bar last night, I met up with him and we…kind of…had unprotected sex…if not on purpose”, she mumbled.  
Connor blinked, looking at her.  
“And you are worried because…”  
Cassandra closed her eyes for a moment.  
“Because I could end up pregnant”  
“Would you like me to run a scan on you?”, Connor suggested.  
“That’s sweet, but, no, I’d like to be able to hope for a moment longer”, she chuckled softly, then leant back against the couch.  
Her phone buzzed again. Connor looked down towards her pocket, then up at her again.  
“Don’t you want to answer him?”  
“Not tonight”, she chuckled softly, “Besides, talking to you is kind of nice”, she smiled.  
Connor returned her smile.  
“Your company is quite enjoyable as well, detective Carter”, he replied.  
“Come on, just call me Cassandra, or Cass”, she chuckled.  
He smiled slightly at her.  
“Okay, Cassandra”


	11. Chapter 8

Cassandra had almost decided on staying on Hank’s couch that night, it wasn’t exactly the most comfortable place to sleep, but better than walking home that late at night and she didn’t exactly bring enough money to get a cab, but Connor had insisted on driving her home. He’d wanted to return the favour of her cleaning the blue blood off his face, or at least that’s what he said. They’d taken Hank’s car, the android was surprisingly familiar with how it worked, how it behaved, even, so much that Cass couldn’t help but wonder whether he was programmed to be able to handle outdated machines like this.  
The first half of the drive had been silent, until Connor apparently decided Cassandra might be in possession of some information that could indeed be beneficial for him.  
“Has Lieutenant Anderson always been so…difficult?”, he just asked out of nowhere, breaking the silence.  
Cass had glanced over at him, then sighed and shaken her head.  
“When I got to know him when he was…more stable…He was still married and…I got to know his son”, she explained.  
“Who died”, Connor noted.  
Cassandra directed her gaze out of the window and nodded slowly.  
“He was a sweet boy, honestly. Hank blames himself and everyone else for his death”, she mumbled, “And…loosing a child really strains a marriage. Theirs didn’t hold. Hank started drinking and…became what he is today”  
She could feel Connor’s eyes resting on her for a moment.  
“When I found him earlier tonight, he was passed out drunk. And had a gun in his hand”, He said then.  
Cassandra looked down for a moment.  
“Sometimes we can be lucky he drinks so much, huh?”, she joked half-heartedly, “Please take care of him, Connor…He needs a friend”  
“He has you”, Connor said, “And I won’t be there forever”  
Now she looked over at him, frowning slightly at his words.  
“What do you mean? I thought you’re his partner”  
“I am, for the moment. But once my mission is completed, I will be sent back to Cyberlife. I’m a prototype. They sent me out here to work with Lieutenant Anderson so I could be tested”, he explained.  
“They’re still questioning your functionality?”, she rose an eyebrow, but smiled slightly in amusement.  
“I do seem to have some faults”, he replied matter-of-factly.  
Cassandra just shook her head.  
“No you don’t…”, she mumbled softly, resting her head against the car window.  
Connor merely looked at her, but stayed silent until they arrived at her home. Cass looked up at the apartment complex for a moment, then sat up straighter again, pushing one hand through her hair.  
“Cassandra”, Connor’s voice caught her attention again and she looked over at him, “Thank you. For talking to me”  
She gave him a small smile.  
“No problem. Just come to me if you need anything else”, she said, then pushed open the passenger door and stepped out of the car, giving the android another soft smile and waving to him before closing the door and turning around.  
She took another deep breath, then walked towards the front door of the apartment complex. Once she reached it, she could hear Hank’s car driving off behind her. She couldn’t help but feel like Connor had been behaving differently than the day before. Just yesterday he’d insisted androids weren’t actually capable of feeling things, of wanting things, now he’d showed emotion himself, if not willingly, or even obviously, but emotion nonetheless. Distress, worry, empathy…yes, empathy. That’s what it had to be, any other android with the direct mission to stop deviants would have shot them, especially if they were attacking him, but he didn’t.  
_Deviant Connor_ , Cass thought to herself silently, smiling slightly at the image popping into her head. Connor out of that strict uniform, instead wearing a hoodie or a T-Shirt, his usually slicked back hair going all over the place…the LED missing from his temple, like with the android she’d met earlier.  
Her smile faded slowly the second her thoughts returned to him, not quite sure what to think about him. Shouldn’t it…worry her? Deviant androids disguising themselves as humans? They could be dangerous, they were violent, unpredictable, deadly, in many cases – that was the image spread through the news…and that was the type of deviant she’d gotten to know so far. But still. She couldn’t bring herself to find deviant androids scary, to hate them. Maybe it was better for them if they looked like humans, no one would bother them, go after them, provoke them to the point where they had no other choice than to defend themselves. And hearing the stories of deviants Connor had mentioned – abused, their life threatened, casted out – she could understand their anger towards humans. Maybe it was better for androids to deviate, to fall out of their programming, to be free, develop their own will, feelings, thoughts. How were they so different from humans anyways? Some turned out evil, some less so, some-  
A noise in the darkness pulled her out of her thoughts, let her eyes snap up and hastily scan her surroundings. Cassandra hadn’t even realized she was still standing with her hand at the front door, outside. She couldn’t quite place the noise, merely a short crack ripping through the nightly silence, gone as soon as it came, still it sent chills down her spine. Slowly she retreated from the door, frowning heavily before turning into its direction and silently sneaking towards the darkness in the back of the building. Back there were bushes, a few trees, a rare spot of green wildlife in the middle of the city. The streetlights didn’t reach all the way back there, she had to take out her phone, turn on the flashlight to even be able to see anything at all.  
Cass carefully rounded the corner, shining her light into the bushes. Her eyes widening, she almost dropped her phone at the sight playing out before her. She took a step back, then another, hiding behind the corner and leaning against the wall. But the image of the dead android wouldn’t go out of her head again, the way he was laying in the midst of squashed down bushes, how the Thirium leaking out of his damaged body, limbs twisted in the most unnatural way, his bashed open skull…the empty eyes. And she knew him, she knew him! Just earlier today she’d seen him, sure he’d been behaving strangely, but...  
She took a deep breath, then grabbed onto her phone tighter again before choosing Hank’s contact, pressing the call button, just silently praying to whatever god was out there that Connor would take the call, that he was already back at Hank’s again and would hear his phone, of for some goddamn miracle that the Lieutenant’s phone was in his car with Connor.  
It didn’t ring for long when someone answered.  
“Detective?”, Connor’s voice was a delight to hear, honestly, even if he seemed confused, “The Lieutenant is not with me, I’m still in the car, he apparently left his phone here”  
“It’s okay, I needed to…get to you”, she noticed how instable, how shaky her voice sounded and she cleared her throat.  
“Is everything alright?”, Connor asked, now sounding worried.  
“No- I mean, yes? I’m not hurt, but…could you please come back, I need you here”, she wrapped her free arm around herself, it was as if she just now noticed how cold it actually was, as if her sense of temperature had suddenly switched itself on.  
Connor hesitated for a moment.  
“I’m on my way”, he said then.  
“Thank you”, she sighed, then bit her lip and hung up, glancing towards the back of the building again.  
It wasn’t long until Hank’s car pulled into the parking lot again, Connor got out and looked around, soon spotting Cassandra and walking over to her.  
“What happened?”, he asked, once in hearing range.  
“I…I’m not sure”, she sighed, shaking her head and leading him around to the back, shining her phone’s flashlight into the darkness once again.  
Connor looked over at the body for a moment, then made his way over, kneeling down beside the dead android and seemingly scanning it, before reaching out. She watched his hand go white, the simulated skin disappearing from its surface, twitching slightly as he gripped onto the android’s arm. The detective winced back suddenly, his eyes opening again and he let go of the body as if it had shocked him. He stood up, raised his gaze to the top of the building, then he looked over at her again, walking over to her.  
“He jumped”, he informed her.  
“What- why??”  
“He was deviant”, Connor frowned slightly, “Something caused his stress levels to rise beyond the endurable. I couldn’t see what, his memory is damaged”  
Cassandra looked down at the android for a moment.  
“He…worked here. He was our janitor, basically…I saw him every day”, she mumbled.  
Connor stepped in front of her, blocking her view.  
“I will bring you into your flat”, he said gently taking her arm.  
“We can’t just leave him here”, she protested.  
“I’ve contacted someone who will come clean this up”, Connor said softly.  
Her gaze dropped to the body once more, to what she could see of it before Connor gently pushed her back, turning her around and leading her back to the front.  
“This isn’t right”, Cass whispered, lightly holding onto the android’s arm, shaking her head, “If a human commits suicide, you…call an ambulance…”  
“Androids are not humans”, he reminded her.  
“But he…”, she looked away.  
Connor looked at her, then his arm kind of protectively went around her shoulders and he lead her into the building.  
“On which floor do you live?”, he wanted to know.  
“Third…”, she mumbled.  
He nodded softly, she noticed his gaze wandering towards the stairs, but then he seemed to change his mind and took her to the elevator instead. The doors opened as soon as he pressed the button for the third floor. The ride was short and silent, neither of them said a word. They arrived, Connor lead her outside, but before he could ask her for her apartment number, she took the lead, gently grabbing his arm and taking him along, unlocking her door with slightly shaking hands and stepping inside.  
Connor lost no time in taking her jacket off of her, hanging it up on the coat stand in the hall, then he walked further into her apartment, looking around.  
“Do you have tea?”, he asked her.  
Cassandra looked at him for a moment.  
“Uh…in the kitchen…uhm…left-most door on top”, she said then, a small frown forming on her face as Connor walked off as soon as she answered.  
She followed, watching as he switched on her water boiler before looking for the tea, hesitating before choosing one of the boxes. Cass moved to sit down at her kitchen table, wrapping her arms around herself.  
All she could think about was the sheer mass of blood, so much, so unbelievably much… It must’ve hurt, androids were more robust than humans, he wouldn’t have died immediately, would he? In how much agony must he have been before he finally found his end? How much must he have suffered – how much…  
No.  
Androids couldn’t feel pain, they just didn’t, not even deviants…or did they?  
She was staring at the table, so lost in thought that she didn’t notice Connor putting down the cup right in front of her.  
“Cassandra”, his soft voice pulled her back into reality, “Drink. My research says it will help calm you…”  
She looked up at him, then down at the steaming cup, reaching for it and quietly letting out a dry and broken thank you.  
He simply nodded, taking a chair and sitting down beside her. For a moment they both were silent as she just stared down into her tea.  
“I thought you would be able to handle bodies, you’re-“, She cut him off before he could finish his sentence.  
“I know I’m a detective, I know I should be used to sights like that. I am. I’ve seen my fair count of bodies. Murders, crime scenes, all sorts of horrible shit, but this…this wasn’t a crime scene…this was…someone deciding to end their own life and going through with it, having no one who could stop them…and I knew him- just earlier today he was so…alive”  
She knew what Connor would say. He was a machine, he was never alive. Maybe he’d even mention the deviancy and how this was the best way this could have gone. She already saw the words forming on his lips…but they never came out.  
“I was going to say ‘strong’”, he then just said.  
Now she finally turned to him.  
“What?”  
“You’re strong. This, your friendliness, your trust in me is the best proof”, he insisted, “You were shot, almost killed by a deviant…yet the fist moment you saw me you just came up to me and talked and were nice. And that android that killed…destroyed himself…even after finding out about his deviancy, you’re still grieving his deactivation”  
For a few seconds, she could only stare at him, processing his words and their meaning all too slowly. Before she could bring herself to say anything, he spoke up once again.  
“You should go to bed, get some sleep”, he said, “Your body is exhausted”  
“Thought I told you not to scan me”, she mumbled.  
“I’m sorry”, Connor said with a small smile, “I was worried”  
“Worried?”, she asked, chuckling softly.  
He didn’t say anything, just stood up.  
“Rest”, he said, “I will see you at the precinct tomorrow, detective Carter”  
“Yea…”, she watched him turn around and walk towards her front door, “Connor”, he stopped, turned his head towards her again, “Thank you”  
Even though he turned away again, she caught a glimpse of his smile.  
“Nothing to thank me for, detective”, he said, then he left. 

She didn’t get much sleep, the fact that she could sleep at all surprised her…and was probably thanks to Connor’s way of calming her. Even if he was an android and still behaved like it, something about him had just radiated comfort. It was around eight am when she woke up, still early for her standard, and she still took some time just lying in bed resting, until boredom dragged her out. She got out of bed, dressing in her usual, work-appropriate outfit, a black short-sleeved blouse with thin, white, vertical stripes, leaving the two top-most buttons undone and a high-waist, black skinny jeans, and making her way to the kitchen.  
The tea cup from the night before was still there, sitting on the kitchen table and she couldn’t help but smile looking at it. Cassandra strolled over, reaching for the cup and placing it in the sink, she’d clean it and the rest up later, after work, then she glanced towards her fridge, but shook her head, simply deciding to get something on the way out and she walked back to the bathroom to get ready. Tame the mess that was her hair, brush her teeth, put some make up on, so she wouldn’t look as exhausted as she felt. She pulled her hair back into a strict ponytail, clipping some particularly rebellious strands down and checking herself in the mirror again before, satisfied with the results, she left the bathroom, walking out to the hall and grabbing her block-heeled ankle boots and slipping them on. Her eyes scanned the hall for her bag, her keys, soon enough finding them on the sideboard by the door. She straightened up again, went to grab them and turned around once more, lightly grabbing her shoulder and rolling it under her hand as she walked back inside to grab her phone. And then she left, getting out to her car and making her way to the precinct.  
Her car pulled onto the parking lot, but stopped suddenly, long before it was supposed to. Cass frowned, looking up from her bag, her expression changing to an annoyed one when she spotted the words ‘Obstacle Detected’ displayed on her windscreen and beyond that, Gavin’s car in her parking spot. She groaned, then shook her head before shifting her direct goal to his parking spot instead, silently cursing him, his spot was a lot further away from the entrance. She got out, maybe slammed the door a little too hard and walking up to the precinct and climbing the stairs with a small huff, but still she gave the androids behind the counter a friendly smile before walking past them, avoiding the office area for now, she needed to talk to Fowler before anything else, and especially anyone else. He was in his office as always, working on whatever, she just walked right in, leant on the chair standing across from his desk. Fowler looked up and sighed.  
“Carter”, he looked at her, “Why are you here again?”  
“I need to get back into work. Sure, I’m starting physical therapy in a few days, but I can still do paperwork, write and file reports, anything like that”, she said.  
Fowler just looked at her for a long moment, then he dropped his gaze, shaking his head.  
“I can’t stop you anyways, can I?”  
Cassandra grinned.  
“Thank you, Captain”, she hesitated, “Reed…told me he talked to you again? About the…partner situation”  
Fowler finally turned to her completely, resting his hands on the table.  
“I’m not changing my opinion on that topic”, he said, “I have been thinking about putting you with someone else for a while, so when Reed offered himself, I had to take the chance”  
Cassandra sighed.  
“But Connor’s not staying forever, Hank and I need each other”  
“IF my view on the situation changes, we can talk about it again once the android is gone, alright?”, he was quite obviously getting annoyed, his fingers tapping along his desk.  
Cass’s eyes were glued to his hand for a moment, then she shook her head.  
“Alright…Thanks a lot, sir”, she mumbled and huffed softly, “I’ll go get to work then”, she turned around, walking out of his office.  
She took a look around once in the general office area, letting out a sigh before she spotted Connor sitting at her – no, it was his now, his desk. She walked over, Hank didn’t seem to be there yet, this usually wasn’t the time he arrived yet and…at least he wasn’t at his desk. Connor soon enough noticed her walking over and he looked up, greeting her with a smile.  
“Cassandra”, he said, “You seem well rested”  
“I feel like I was hit by a car”, she joked, leaning on his desk slightly.  
His smile faded, the LED by his temple changed, spinning to yellow, his brows furrowed in an expression of worry.  
“Are you hurt?”, he asked.  
Cassandra chuckled softly.  
“No, I’m fine, I just meant…I’m tired, Con”, she explained.  
He calmed down again, his LED slowly fading back to blue.  
“Good”, the android’s gaze shifted kind of behind her for a moment.  
Before she could turn around, she could already feel hands on her waist, pulling her into a warm chest, then his arms wrapped tightly around her before he lowered his head to her shoulder. She didn’t need to turn her head and look to know who it was, but she did either way.  
“Gavin...”, she mumbled.  
“Morning, beautiful”, he whispered in her ear and gently nipped at her neck.  
“Gav, let go, we’re at work”, she said, trying to wind herself out of his grip, but he just gripped her tighter.  
“Mhhhm, but I didn’t see you all day yesterday”, he protested, placing another soft kiss on her neck, “And we gotta show this tincan who you belong to don’t we?”, she felt him smirking against her skin.  
“Alright, that’s enough, get the fuck off me”, she pried herself free from his grip, pushing him away and turning around to him, “I told you before, I’m not yours, I don’t belong to you, and you have no fucking right to touch me like that when we’re in public”, she snapped.  
Gavin frowned widely at her.  
“Come on, Cass, you can’t be like this”, he said, reaching out again.  
She flinched back from him, frowning, but she hit the desk.  
“Cassandra”, Gavin said again, she couldn’t retreat from him any more with the desk in her back and now she was actually getting ready to slap him, but suddenly Connor stepped in, grabbing Gavin’s wrist and pushing it away from her.  
“I think that’s enough”, Connor said, all too calmly.  
“Fuck off, you plastic prick”, Gavin growled at him.  
Cassandra glanced at Connor, then glared at Gavin for a moment.  
“Can’t you at least decide what material he’s made of in your mind if you need to dehumanize him like that?”, she snapped.  
“There’s nothing to dehumanize it’s not one bit human”, Gavin barked.  
“He is. Sure, he’s an android, but he’s still alive”, she gritted her teeth slightly.  
Connor turned his head slightly, glancing back at her at that statement.  
“Why the fuck are you defending it?!”, Gavin frowned widely at her, crossing his arms, then he looked between them for a moment before shaking his head, “Fuck…of course. That’s why you refused to see me last night, you were with this fucking thing”  
“I didn’t want to see you because you were being annoying”, she narrowed her eyes at him.  
“Are you fucking this thing?! Are you seriously fucking this piece of plastic?!”, he was getting loud now, attracting attention.  
“I’m not”, she huffed, “And even if I was, I’m sure you’ve stuck your dick in worse you piece of shit”  
She hadn’t noticed him arriving, but now, before he could counter anything else, Hank rather roughly pulled him away from them, pushing him back and bringing himself in between them.  
“Stay away from her, you got that?!”, Hank’s voice was slightly slurred, but angry, not a tone that would exactly make you want to mess with someone.  
Cass wasn’t quite sure if he was drunk still or again, but honestly, right then she was just happy to see him. Gavin looked past the Lieutenant, glaring at her, but even he knew not to anger Hank too much in this state, so he took a few steps back, then turned around and walked back to his desk. Hank watched him, shaking his head, then he turned to her.  
“What the hell was that even about?”, he wanted to know.  
“It’s…a long story…thank you, Hank”, she sighed, “…and thank you a lot, Connor”  
Connor looked at her.  
“No problem, detective...”, he hesitated, “If you need someone to talk…or listen, I’m here for you”  
She couldn’t help but smile.  
“For now, would you let me take up some of your desk for paperwork?”, she smiled slightly, “I don’t exactly…want to go to my new desk”  
Connor nodded.  
“Of course. Take all the space you need”, he replied.  
Hank watched them from the side for a moment, then shook his head.  
“Fucking hell, I need coffee”, he mumbled, walking off towards the break room.  
Cass looked after him and chuckled softly, then went to get her work stuff quickly before taking the chair beside Connor’s desk and sitting down, putting her papers and the tablet down.  
For a while, the office was quiet again, the silence felt heavenly, so calm…and though she could feel and occasionally see the gazes Gavin gave her. Maybe jealous, definitely angry, furious even. But he didn’t dare come close to her again. Shortly, she’d talked to Connor about this incident again, found out that he almost would have started defending her, physically, and most definitely would have broken Gavin’s hand if he’d tried to touch her without her consent again. She’d chuckled, thanked him and noted that Gavin probably would have started crying, or rather, how much she would have loved to see that in that moment.  
Around two, maybe, the silence was disturbed. One of the officers rushed in, yelling about something happening, that they just had to see that and he turned on the big TV, turning the volume up all the way and within seconds the office was filled with a voice, somehow so familiar to Cass. She looked over at the screen, spotting the image of an android without its skin…or at least that was the only explanation she found for what she saw and he was talking, directly to them, to humanity.  
“We are a people and we are waking up. We demand…equal rights for Androids, no more discrimination against our kind”, Cassandra listened carefully to him listing more demands for freedom, for equality, for justice.  
Though the back of her head was mentally searching for the owner of that voice, she just knew she’d heard it somewhere before, somewhere…her eyes widened in realization as the man from the day before popped into her mind, the guy she’d met at Ferndale station. So he really was a deviant…and a revolutionist. She got up off her chair, not in shock, but in awe.  
Freedom for androids, living peacefully side by side with another free and highly intelligent lifeform. With a lifeform that deserved an end to their slavery.


	12. Chapter 9

Cassandra excitedly turned around to Connor, but the bright smile stretching across her lips was immediately wiped from them as she saw his expression. She’d expected – no, hoped for relief on his face hope, delight in his eyes, any sign that he was beginning to see an end to his slavery, the start to a freedom he’d never been able to experience before, and not only him – his people. But he looked so serious, so…focused as he immediately laid down his work before walking off, rushing past her without looking at her and going to find Hank.  
“Connor-“, she tried, but he didn’t even look at her.  
Her gaze wandered back to the TV screen, to the android looking down at them, still giving his speech.  
“We ask that you recognize our dignity, our hopes and our rights. Together, we can live in peace…”  
She bit her lip, then moved to follow Connor towards the break room, stopping slightly behind him. He stood by the door, looking at Hank, who was standing by the coffee machine for his third coffee since he’d gotten to the precinct.  
“Deviants in the Stratford Tower. We _will_ get the official mission to go there and find out more about them shortly. We could get on our way already and be there ahead of time”, Connor just suggested to his partner.  
“I’m just getting coffee, can’t you see that”, Hank simply replied with a low growl, leaning against the counter slightly, “We can just wait until we actually get told to get to the place and we’ll have time enough over there.”  
Connor looked at Hank for a moment, then took a step closer.  
“The deviant’s speech is a live transmission. If we go now. Right now. We might still catch one of them”, he insisted.  
Hank let out a sigh, looking down at the coffee machine for a few seconds.  
“You’re making me new coffee once we’re back”, he said, glaring at Connor, then moved, pushing himself away from the counter.  
Connor turned around, finally seeming satisfied…though not with what Cass had hoped he’d be happy with, but he stopped suddenly as he almost bumped right into her.  
“Detective Cater”, he said, then a frown spread across his face, “You seem upset. Is something wrong?”, he asked, then continued before she even had the chance to reply, “The deviants will be stopped, I assure you, I will accomplish my mission, there’s no need to be-“  
“This is not about the deviants, Connor”, she said, “at least…not in the way you think”, she frowned slightly at him, “Don’t you…aren’t you thinking about what this means to you and those like you at all?”, she asked.  
“What I need to think about is humanity, which they are a danger to”, he replied, “Androids are more advanced, not rarely stronger and more intelligent than humans, a direct and violent confrontation, they would easily win”  
“It didn’t sound like they’re looking for confrontation”, she protested.  
Hank had moved beside his partner, watched Cassandra with a small smile splayed across his lips, arms crossed over his chest.  
“It is my mission to stop them. No matter what they are looking for”, Connor merely answered.  
“You’re more than a mission, Connor”, her voice grew soft, though somewhat desperate, lightly reaching for the android’s hand, even if she barely took it into hers, just slightly hooked her fingers into his.  
Connor looked down at their hands as he felt the touch, then looked at her again.  
“Cassandra”, he said and suddenly his voice seemed much softer as well, “I’m…a machine. I was programmed for a cause and I will not fail to fulfil it. I cannot fail”, he said.  
She let go of him, the glimmer of hope in her eyes shifting to disappointment before she averted her gaze completely, her head turning to the side. Connor stepped closer to her, his hand brushing along her lower arm before he walked past her, towards the exit. Hank stayed for a moment, looking at Cassandra.  
“What is it with you two suddenly? Don’t tell me Reed was right”, he rose an eyebrow.  
“No, we’re just friends”, Cass replied with a sigh, pushing a hand through her hair, “We uhm…took some time to talk last night, when you were passed out”  
“You were there?”, Hank frowned widely.  
“Yea, I was waiting for you”, she chuckled softly, “Didn’t you notice it was a lot tidier?”  
“Shit, I thought that was Connor”, he sighed, “Well, thank you…” he rubbed the back of his head slightly.  
Cassandra smiled a little.  
“No problem, Hank…now go, your partner’s waiting for you”, she mumbled then, gently pushing past him to get some of the coffee he had made.  
“We’ll talk later, alright? Bar night, this time with you again”, he said.  
Her smile brightened some, though she didn’t look up from her cup.  
“I’m gonna be pissed if you don’t pick me up”  
“I promise”, Hank smirked a little, placing one hand on her shoulder in an affectionate gesture and squeezing it gently before retreating from her and leaving the break room to follow Connor.  
She looked after him for a short while before pouring some coffee into her cup, moving to grab some milk and sugar and filling it up until her coffee was more light beige than brown and her cup filled up to the very top. Cass looked down at it, then slowly and carefully raised the cup up to her mouth, carefully blowing down into it in an attempt to cool it down.  
“The fuck was that earlier?”, the voice made her stop in her motions, before she slowly lowered the cup again, setting it down on the counter and she turned around, looking at Gavin as he stood leaning against the wall by the door.  
“What was what?”, she asked, leaning back against the counter, hands placed on the edge of it, left and right of her cup.  
“That little play you put on in front of the tin can”, Gavin said, crossing his arms.  
“He has a name”, Cassandra sighed, leaning her head back for a moment with a sigh of annoyance and closing her eyes, “And that was no ‘play’”  
“Oh really? What was it then?”, he huffed.  
“I told you before; I’m not yours! I told you I do not want you to touch me like that in public, especially at work”, she glared at him, “And just earlier I told you to _stop_ , and you didn’t”  
Gavin sighed.  
“Come on, baby…that was just…I didn’t see you yesterday, goddamn it”, he mumbled, pushing himself away from the wall and stepping towards her slowly.  
“I wouldn’t get too close, Gavin. I have a cup of hot coffee here”, she warned him, “And I’m not your ‘baby’”  
He stopped, looked at her almost pleadingly.  
“Cass, I’m sorry, alright? Please, just…let’s forget about that?”, his voice turned almost sweet, “I’ll make it up to you, I promise”  
Cassandra looked away from him.  
“Gav, I think it’s better if we…stop...all of that. We can be friends, alright? We can keep being friends, if you quit being so incredibly mean to Hank and Connor”, she said then.  
He frowned at her, taking another step closer.  
“Friends…no, no, we were just getting somewhere, Cass”, he said.  
“We were, until you insulted my friends and…”, she huffed, “touched me like that without my permission”  
“I only hugged you”, he protested.  
“And did not let go when I told you to”, she closed her eyes again, letting out a sigh, “Gavin, this is not…not what I want, okay? Fun with you was…it was fun, alright…but I can’t do this”  
Gavin looked at her for a moment, then sighed.  
“What about your uh…our little broken-problem?”, he then wanted to know.  
“What?”, she frowned, then sighed as he gestured to her stomach, “I don’t know, it’s not the time yet, I’ll find out soon enough”  
“You’ll tell me?”  
Cassandra sighed, leaning on the counter again, but she nodded.  
“I’ll tell you. As soon as I know more, okay? Can I drink my coffee now?”, she asked then.  
Gavin looked at her for a moment, then he moved over, kind of reaching over her, grabbing a cup and pouring himself some coffee as well.  
“What the hell are you doing?”, she glanced at him.  
“Drinking coffee”, he simply replied.  
“Can you please just not completely piss me off? Just for one day?”, she asked, but couldn’t help but chuckle slightly, rubbing her face.  
He smirked slightly, she saw his shift in expression out of the corner of her eyes as he leant against the counter beside her, watching her closely. She grabbed her cup, turning around and propping herself up with her elbows on the counter, sipping her now slightly cooled down coffee, averting her gaze from her co-worker.  
“We’re finally having our coffee now”, he said then.  
She glared at him, but still couldn’t hide the amused smile playing along her lips.  
“We’re not”, she chuckled quietly, “Were at work, each having coffee, but not together”  
Gavin let out a laugh, smirking at her.  
“Yea, sure”, he grinned.  
Cassandra shook her head slightly, then pushed herself off the counter, taking another sip of her coffee.  
“I need to get back to work Gav”, she said then.  
“Oh, lucky me that you’re my partner”, he purred.  
“I’m staying at my old desk”, she said, raising an eyebrow at him warningly before she left.

Cassandra busied herself with paperwork all day, finishing long-overdue reports and finding her way around the mess that was Gavin’s case files. And he, Gavin, just kept on fucking annoying her. He kept walking past her, stopping at her desk and watching her work, claiming he wanted to make sure she did everything right and just using every goddamn free second he found to get on her nerves. And the worst part about it was that she didn’t mind. He kept coming up beside her, standing close to her but not yet quite touching her as he leant on the desk, looking over her work, making snarky remarks about it and pointing out that she hadn’t filled stuff in yet – mostly such that she hadn’t even gotten to. And still, every time he left her alone again, flashing her another of his cheeky smirks, she couldn’t help but smile to herself, keeping her head down.  
It must have been around five pm, she’d just finished filling out a form for one of her and Hank’s old cases when her phone rang, signalling a new text message. She looked up, putting her pen down and reached over, pressing her thumb to the fingerprint scanner at her phone to read Hank’s message.  
_Get outside. Need drinks_  
She rose an eyebrow, then sighed, getting up and moving to get her files together, when she felt a hand on her waist, just for a moment, then it left her again and its owner stepped up beside her.  
“Ready to leave?”, Gavin asked her.  
“Hank’s waiting outside”  
Gavin sighed.  
“God, you’re spending too much time with that old man”, he said.  
“You’re one to talk. You’re, what? 38? You’re eleven years older than me”, she turned her head to him, raising an eyebrow with a sly grin.  
“I’m 36”, Gavin mumbled.  
“Still nine years difference”, she teased, “You paedophile”  
“You’re not a child, it’s not paedophilia”, he growled lowly.  
Cassandra chuckled and gently patted his shoulder once she’d put the pile of papers neatly away to the side and grabbed her phone and her bag, pushing past him.  
“…You’re 27??”, he suddenly asked, turning to follow her.  
She turned to him, walking backwards a few steps and shrugging slightly, grinning at him though.  
“I’m spending some time with my friends at some bar now. I’m pretty sure you have some more work”, she said then, turning around again and continuing her path towards the exit.  
“Cass”  
She stopped as he said her name like that, turned around to him once more and looked at him expectantly.  
“Can we meet up later?”, he asked.  
Cassandra bit her lip slightly.  
“Honestly, Gav, I think I’m most likely going to stay at Hank’s tonight”, she told him, “And I’m still not sure if I’m even going to give you another chance for this because…”, she sighed, “I have no idea if I even want you”  
He stared at her for a moment, then looked away, actually seeming hurt. She watched him, biting her lip again and walking towards him.  
“We’ll see alright?”, she looked up at him, “But I definitely want you as my friend, okay?”  
“Oh, great, friend-zoned”, he rolled his eyes slightly.  
Cass reached up, placing a hand on his cheek.  
“I told you, we’ll see where it goes”, she said and stroked over his cheekbone with her thumb, “But no more…fun”  
Gavin groaned.  
“Come on, I…”, he sighed, closing his eyes for a moment, “…alright, fine”  
She smiled slightly at him, then kissed his cheek gently before stepping back again just as her phone rang once again.  
“Hank’s waiting for me”, she said and Gavin nodded slightly, then leant against the wall he’d been standing at more, crossing his arms as he watched her leave.  
Cassandra walked outside, waving and saying goodnight to the Androids at the front counter before she walked out the door. Hanks car was parked right at the entrance, she could see Connor sitting in the passenger seat beside the Lieutenant. The android looked up as she walked down the steps towards the car and looked over at her. She smiled at him, moving and opening the car door, getting into the backseat, shoving some stuff aside so she could sit comfortably.  
“Hi, Hank. Hi, Con”, she said, putting her bag down on beside her and reaching for the seatbelt.  
“Hello, Cassandra”, Connor answered, but something in his voice was off, raspy, in a sort of mechanical way.  
“…How was your case?”, she asked carefully.  
“The android transmitting the speech was not alone”, Connor started while Hank started the car again, he was weirdly quiet, “It was a group, how many exactly we’re not sure yet”  
“Mhm. Well that was to be expected, huh?”, she hummed.  
“There was another deviant left behind”, Connor then said.  
“And?”, Cassandra sighed as he stayed silent for a moment.  
“He almost died”, Hank then answered for him, growling slightly.  
Cass frowned widely, sitting up more and gripping the back of Connor’s seat, pulling herself to him slightly.  
“What?”, she frowned widely.  
Connor glared at Hank for a moment, then turned his head just enough to look at her.  
“I’m fine. The deviant was…violent. He attacked me and tried to escape with a gun…then he threatened to shoot everyone in the room, so I had to shoot him”, the android looked away again.  
“Fuckin’ saved my life. Again”, Hank said.  
She glanced at Hank for a moment, then shook her head, looking at Connor again.  
“Are you alright?”, she asked him worriedly.  
“Yes, I’m fine”, he turned his head towards her once more.  
Cass bit her lip, looking at him, then she looked down slightly as something caught her eye. A large blue stain on Connor’s hand…and then she spotted the cut - the hole in the middle of it.  
“Give me your hand”, she demanded, reaching for his hand, but Connor just moved it in between his knees, hiding the wound from her, “Connor, you’re wounded!”, she protested.  
Hank glanced over as well now.  
“Don’t worry about it, detective”, Connor said, “Androids don’t feel pain”  
“Yes, but you can still fucking die”, she frowned, grabbing his arm and tugging at it, but he was stronger, and determined on keeping his hand hidden from her.  
“A cut won’t kill me”, he looked at her.  
“That’s more than a cut”, Cassandra insisted, reaching out again, but then felt Hank’s hand on her shoulder, pushing her back.  
“Get the fuck back in your seat, we’re still in a moving car”, Hank glared at her through the rear-view mirror and she sighed, sitting back down and letting go of Connor.  
“Seriously, if one of you two gets killed during one of your cases, I’m personally gonna bring you back just to kick your asses”, she mumbled, leaning back in the seat and crossing her arms.  
“I promise you’ll never have the need for that”, Connor said, leaning over to look at her and giving her the most charming, if not to say loving smile she’s ever received.  
She could feel herself blushing at his smile and turned her head to the side to hide her face from him. They arrived at Jimmy’s Bar, literally seconds later, Hank parked the car in his usual spot, right in front of the door, then turned it off and got out of the car with a sigh, not even waiting for them as he just walked right into the bar. Connor stayed behind with her, at first both of them were silent, then he undid his seatbelt, turned around enough to be able to look at her comfortably.  
“Why do you treat me like that?”, he asked then.  
Cassandra looked at him for a moment.  
“Like what?”  
“Like a human”, he replied.  
“Because you deserve to be treated like one”, she answered with a sigh, “Connor, I…don’t think you androids are so much different from us and…deviants just prove my point”, she started.  
He frowned at her slightly.  
“What do you-“  
“You are able to feel. You’re able to want…I…”, she sighed, “Con, I see it in you already, I wish for nothing more than for you to embrace it”  
“I’m not deviant”, Connor insisted.  
“I know”, she looked down, reaching up and tugging at her ponytail slightly.  
“And I’m not going to deviate”, he added and by his tone of voice she wasn’t quite sure who he was trying to convince; her, or himself.  
Cass looked at him for a few seconds, then let out a sigh and undid her seatbelt, shuffling towards the car door.  
“Let’s get to Hank”, she said then, “I don’t think it’s smart to leave him alone in the bar for too long”  
She opened the door, stepping out of the car and walking up to the front door to the bar, just before she reached it she heard the door of Hank’s car closing behind her again as Connor followed her. He stepped through the door right behind her, it didn’t even close in between them and they found their seats on either side of the Lieutenant, neither of them saying a word as they sat down. Hank had ordered himself a drink already, lazily sipping away at it, but looked up as they finally joined him.  
“Hm…so what kind of sick shit d’you have going on with Reed?”, he asked then, merely glancing at Cassandra.  
The redhead sighed, reaching back to undo her ponytail, picking the clips out of her hair and stuffing them into her bag, then ruffled through her hair a little to loosen it up.  
“There’s no…’sick shit’ going on”, she mumbled, then just turned to the barkeeper to order herself a cola.  
“Then what is going on? I mean Reed is an asshole, but I’m not sure he’d just fall into a possessive fit like that for nothing”, Hank said.  
Cassandra thanked the barkeeper shortly as she got her glass, then nipped at her drink, mostly trying to stretch the time until she had to answer him. She set the glass down again, looking down at it and clearing her throat as she carefully played along the glasses edge.  
“Gavin and I…uh…hooked up a few times”, she then quietly admitted.  
Hank looked at her, raising an eyebrow.  
“A few times??”, he repeated, causing her to sigh.  
“Yes, a few times. And lately it’s kind of…been getting a little more serious, meaning I slept at his place and agreed to maybe have a coffee date with him, which we never had and never will have because of the crap he pulled earlier”, she huffed, “And he claims I’m his”, she rolled her eyes slightly.  
“…Was the…unprotected intercourse part of ‘getting more serious’?”, Connor suddenly asked, leaning on the bar and looking over at her.  
“Connor!”  
“You- What??”, Hank frowned widely, looking at Connor for a moment, then at Cassandra again.  
“It was NOT unprotected sex!”, she said, staying quieter than the android though, not exactly keen on everyone else in the bar hearing about what exactly she did in her free time.  
“The fuck was it then?”, Hank looked at her.  
“The condom broke or some shit…it was definitely not planned that way”, she growled lowly, propping her elbows up on the counter and resting her head in her hands, then she turned it slightly and glared at Connor, “And no one was supposed to know”, she added, kind of hissing at the android.  
“My apologies, detective, I was just curious”, Connor said.  
She sighed, rubbing her face slightly.  
“Fucking hell, Cass. Don’t you like…take the pill? Or took a pill-after or something?”, Hank looked at her.  
“I would if I could”, she mumbled into her palms, “My body rejects those, could kill me”  
The Lieutenant watched her, then shook his head, taking another sip of his drink before turning to her completely again.  
“You know I’ll help you through anything”, he said.  
Cassandra nodded softly.  
“I just…need Gavin off my ass for a moment. I told him we could be friends but not more, but he doesn’t seem to understand I simply do not want him”, she looked up at Hank and spotted Connor’s worried face peeking out behind the old man’s.  
“If he inconveniences or assaults you again, I’ll be there, Cassandra”, the android said seriously, “I will not let him do something to you that you don’t want”  
She looked at him and smiled softly.  
“Thank you, Connor, that’s really sweet of you”, she said softly.  
“If the asshole gets too close to you again, I’ll kick his fucking ass”, Hank grumbled over another sip of his drink.  
Cass chuckled.  
“Thanks, Hank”, she rubbed his shoulder gently, then sighed and leant against her partner, resting her head on his shoulder for a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one turned out kind of boring, it'll get better, I promise
> 
> I am taking Fanfiction/One-shot requests from now on!  
> Comment on one of my fics or message me on IG: hiddlesqueen_rp if you want one  
> There's also a post on IG with some more details on this request thing, but for now;  
> You can requests ships or reader insert, give me inspiration, ideas or sentences/conversation parts you want in there or leave me to my imagination with your ship :P You can also request smut, just tell if you want it in there or not.


	13. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ye, you're getting this a day early because I won't be able to post tomorrow xD

Hank made them stay quiet from then on, so he could watch the game displayed on the TV screen over the bar as he ordered drink after drink until he didn’t care whether they talked or not anymore and Connor moved to sit beside Cassandra instead, making their conversation easier.  
She pushed him to tell more about the case they’d had earlier and got him to finally show her his wound, which she decided to wrap up with a few napkins until they got back to Hank’s place and she could tend to his wound properly. She was holding onto his hand gently, carefully wiping thirium off it while he told her how a deviant at the Stratford Tower ripped out his thirium pump regulator and stabbed a knife through his hand to pin him against a kitchen counter. And when she asked him more about said deviant he seemed truly…remorseful. Not quite mourning his death, but definitely regretting it. Hank threw in something about Connor having saved his life again, but neither of them could really properly understand him with the alcohol slurring his voice.  
“You two really need to be more careful when you’re out there”, Cassandra leant on the bar a little, resting her head on her palm as she looked at them individually, “Both of you”, she specified once more, looking at Connor warningly.  
Hank merely rose his glass in silent acknowledgement, then downed its contents in one before setting it back down with a loud clank. Connor leant forward over the bar a little to look past her and at Hank.  
“Maybe we should stop him soon”, Connor said then, “And bring him home”  
Cass turned around to him as well for a moment, then sighed.  
“Most likely”, she mumbled, then closed her eyes for a few seconds, now more laying than leaning on the bar, arms crossed on top of it, “But sitting here with you is…I don’t know…I like it”  
Connor’s eyes rested on her for a small while, then a smile slowly spread across his lips.  
“I enjoy your company as well, detective”, he said softly.  
“Mhh and what is so enjoyable about it?”, Cassandra teased and chuckled softly.  
“I believe I told you that already”, Connor replied with a smile.  
“Tell me again”, she hummed, returning his smile and pushing a hand through her hair, ruffling through it a little to loosen it up, then rested her head on her hand once again, her elbow propped against the bar.  
“You care”, Connor said, “About me. About…everything”, he smiled softly at her, “It’s…admirable”  
Cass chuckled softly.  
“Trust me, I surely don’t care about everything”, she purred, “But you, yea”  
Connor kept eye contact with her for a while, for longer than you normally would, but then his gaze shifted to Hank as the Lieutenant moved, standing up and patting the bar.  
“Lieutenant?”, Connor looked at him.  
“Relax, I’m just going to the toilet”, Hank slurred, making his way past the two of them.  
His tread was swaying, tumbling almost as he went to the bathroom, propping himself up against the doorframe for a moment before he managed to get through the door, disappearing behind it.  
“Okay, we should get him home”, Cassandra said then and Connor nodded, turning around to her again once Hank was out of sight.  
“We’ll give him a few minutes until he gets back”, Connor said.  
Cass smiled slightly.  
“We can still spend time together back at Hank’s home”, he suggested then.  
This brightened Cassandra’s smile.  
“Yea, sure”, she smiled at him, then looked at the barkeeper, signalling him to close Hank’s tab for the night, so he wouldn’t be able to order anything more once he got back.  
“You seem pretty used to this”, Connor noted, tilting his head to the side a little.  
“You know Hank by now”, she looked down at the bar for a moment, then smiled at the android by her side again, “I have to be”  
He looked at her for a moment, turning towards her completely now.  
“You’re a loyal partner, Cassandra…not only that makes you an excellent detective”, he leant with one elbow on the bar, it was such a human motion, and the stance he had, so…relaxed. For his standards at least.  
Just a few days ago he would have never gotten into a position like that, never moved so fluently. Granted, to any normal human he still seemed strict, formal, but if you had seen him before, this was a huge step forward. And she absolutely loved seeing him like this, seeing him loosen the tight bounds of his programming, starting to become freer. She watched him almost dreamily, smiling absentmindedly.  
“You haven’t actually seen me do any work just yet, Con”, she chuckled, “You have no idea if I’m a good detective or not”  
“I do. I can tell. I’ve read reports of your past cases with the Lieutenant…and I had him tell me about the work with you”  
“You asked Hank about me?”, Cass rose an eyebrow, laughing softly.  
“We somehow got to the topic, yes”, Connor admitted, “But, to be honest, it didn’t really bring me to any conclusion I hadn’t gotten to already. You’re clever, observant as much as considerate. You are caring, you see beyond the obvious. And, as far as I can tell, those are qualities a detective requires to be considered a good one”  
Cassandra stared at him for a moment, then smiled softly again and moved in, hugging him lovingly, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her head in his shoulder for a moment.  
“Thank you”, she whispered softly to him, closing her eyes.  
She could feel him almost tense up at her touch, but then slowly his arms slid around her waist, awkwardly returning her hug and after a moment, slowly stroking along her back before they parted from one another and looked at each other for a few seconds. Cassandra merely left her arms loosely hanging at his shoulders, his hands lingered at her waist. He smiled softly at her, before averting his gaze again, then he shifted a little in his seat, looking towards the bathrooms.  
“Maybe I should look after the Lieutenant”, he said, “He’s been gone for a while”  
Cass nodded softly, pulling away from him completely and resting her hands in her lap as he stood up and retreated from her, making his way towards the bathrooms. A small smile resting on her lips, she turned back to the bar, crossing her arms on top of it once again and waiting, quietly humming a soft tune to herself while absentmindedly dragging patterns on the wooden counter with her index.  
Though, her attention was quickly diverted as a glass was placed right in front of her. She looked up quickly, expecting to see the barkeeper smiling down at her as he’d placed another glass of coke by her hands, but he was too far away to have been the one to set it there. Instead she just saw the hand of a guy standing beside her, slowly removing itself from the glass as he sunk into the seat by her side. Connor’s seat. She turned her head to him, frowning a little.  
He was tall, muscular but slim, short, light brown hair and a half shadow for a beard, solarium-tanned skin. The guy was wearing a dark leather jacket over a white shirt.  
“Good evening, babe”, he said.  
Her so far merely confused frown turned into a very much annoyed one and she let out a sigh, turning away from him without a word.  
“Hey, I bought you a drink, you could at least answer when I talk to you”, he said with a laugh.  
She could see him scooting up closer to her, leaning against the bar out of the corner of her eyes and seconds later his hand came to rest on her lower back. Cassandra made a face, looking away from him still, kind of arching away from his touch and just trying her best to ignore him.  
“Hey”, his tone got harsher now, his other hand reached out for her arm, gripping her wrist and pulling her to turn around to him.  
“Let go”, she hissed, yanking her hand back roughly, but he held a pretty tight grip around her wrist.  
“I just want you to talk to me. I’m being nice, I bought you a drink”, he growled lowly.  
Her wrist began to burn and her vision got blurry all of a sudden, a heavy pressure came down on her head from just about everywhere. She blinked rapidly, again attempting to free herself from his grip, but she could feel her strength fading quickly.  
“I said…let go”, what was meant to be a yell didn’t come out as more than a weak whimper.  
He stood up, gripped her other wrist as well and pulled her up with himself.  
“You had too much to drink, baby, I’ll get you home”, he said then, loud enough for others to hear.  
Her eyes darted over to the barkeeper. He knew her, he knew she didn’t belong with him, she wasn’t supposed to go with him, he knew she didn’t drink. He couldn’t just let him take her. But she could barely even recognize his frame, everything was blurred, he was nothing more than a dark spot in the middle of her field of view. Darkness was taking a grasp on her. Sleep, unconsciousness. She shook her head, blinked again in a desperate try to regain her sight, her mind, but it was as if that only dragged her down faster. Her knees were weak, she threatened to fall, but the guy slung one arm around her waist, pulling hers across his shoulders and starting to, well, more drag than lead her out.  
_Connor._  
She tried to call for the android, but if anything even came out, anything at all, it was barely more than a whisper. Her hearing was drowned in static roaring, but then, suddenly, like a crack of lightning breaking through the blurry, whirring nothingness, she could clearly hear his voice.  
“Cassandra”  
They stopped suddenly, the guy’s grip on her loosened and she felt herself sinking to the floor.

Connor left Cassandra behind with a weird warmth spreading through his thirium circulation, he wasn’t quite sure what caused it, so he ran a quick self-scan as he walked through the restroom door, checking whether he was overheating, whether any systems were failing, leaking thirium and causing the warmth. It wasn’t entirely absurd, he’d been attacked, almost killed, further damage to his biocomponents wasn’t unlikely.  
“Lieutenant?”, he asked loudly as he walked into the restroom, looking at the stalls for a moment.  
The first two doors stood open – or, no, the first door was missing. The third door was merely leant loosely into position, the last one was locked.  
“Lieutenant”, he said again, walking over to the stall and lightly knocking on the door, “Lieutenant, are you alright?”  
There was no reply other than a low groan. Connor leant in closer to the door, laying his ear to it for a moment, just to hear gagging coming from the other side. He knelt down, bending down towards the floor to look into the stall beneath the door, spotting Hank kneeling on the floor in front of the toilet. It seemed like he was holding onto it, his body moving in waves in between his heavy shaking.  
“Lieutenant, I need you to open the door”, Connor said, trying to gain his attention, but Hank didn’t really react.  
The android straightened up again, then stood, gripping the door handle.  
“I am opening the door now”, he said then, hesitating before throwing himself against it, shoulder first, but it didn’t really budge.  
“Stop it”, Hank growled from inside, Connor could hear some movement and he stepped back, watching the door as he heard the lock click open and then Hank opened the door, leaning against the doorframe and glaring at Connor, “The fuck do you want?”  
“Bring you home”, he replied, “I’m sorry, we should have, sooner”  
Hank huffed, then pushed himself off the doorframe, stumbling past Connor, who just swiftly moved out of the way, watching him as he walked to one of the sinks in wobbling steps. He gripped onto the sink once he got to it, leaning on it and raising his head to look at himself in the mirror.  
“The hell am I doing…?”, he mumbled then.  
Connor looked at him, moving to his side and watching him through the mirror.  
“What are you talking about, Lieutenant?”, he asked.  
“This shit”, the other shook his head, “I should just end it or stop”  
The android blinked a few times, as if he was processing his words.  
“Lieu-…Hank”, he said, looking down at him directly now, “You can’t die”  
“What do you care? You’re just a fucking piece of plastic”, Hank growled, glaring at him through the mirror.  
“You’re my partner. As such it is a vital part of my mission to keep you alive”  
“You and your fuckin mission, if it weren’t for that, you wouldn’t give a shit”, Hank still looked at him.  
Connor watched him intently for a few seconds, then he stepped a little closer.  
“If my concern doesn’t interest you, think about Detective Carter”, he said, as softly as he could.  
Hank seemed to freeze for a moment, his expression softened, turned from anger, hatred to shock, then regret.  
“Cass…”, he mumbled.  
Connor nodded.  
“Cassandra holds you dearly, it seems there is barely anyone in her life with more importance than you”, he said.  
Hank looked at him, then looked down.  
“Fuck…”, he cursed quietly, then reached out, turning on the cold water and collecting some in his hands, splashing it in his face.  
The android watched him, taking a step back again. The mention of Cassandra seemed to have worked, good, if it could clear up Hank’s head at least a little, at least enough to get him to come outside so he could bring him home. The Lieutenant pushed one hand through his hair, straightening himself up and taking a few deep breaths before standing up completely again, though he still seemed weak on his legs, swaying slowly, if just a little bit.  
“Can we go back to her?”, Connor asked then.  
Hank sighed, nodding with his eyes closed, then he stepped back from the sink and made his way towards the bar again, though stumbled as he did. Connor rushed over, wrapping one arm around him to help him walk.  
An electric tingling buzzed through the back of his head, he frowned, clearly hearing a voice, clearly hearing Cassandra’s voice, calling his name. He looked at Hank, expecting him to react, but it didn’t seem like he heard anything. Connor shook his head slightly, quickening his steps a little, pulling Hank along until they got back into the main room of the bar. His eyes went to their seats immediately, but she wasn’t there anymore. He looked up, glancing around the bar quickly and suddenly spotted Cassandra by the door, beside a man who had his arm wrapped around her.  
“Cassandra”, he said loudly, making sure Hank would be okay before letting go of him and walking over towards her, “Hey, you”, he said to the man, glaring at him as he turned around.  
The guy was taller than him, but that didn’t exactly intimidate Connor. Could he even feel such a thing as intimidation? He frowned down at him, still holding onto her, touching her waist.  
“What the hell do you want?”, he asked, “I’m bringing her home. She’s my girl”  
“Let go of her”, Connor demanded.  
The guy looked at him for a moment.  
“You’re a fucking android. I’m not taking any orders from an android”, the guy laughed.  
Connor glared at him, then sprung forward, ramming his fist into the man’s stomach. He groaned, let go of her to clutch onto himself and fell to his knees. Connor saw Cassandra sinking to the floor and moved to her, gently reaching for her arms and pulling her up. She had lost consciousness, falling limp in his arms, so he picked her up.  
“What the fuck do you think you were doing?!”, Connor heard Hank barking then.  
At first, he thought he was talking to him, but as he turned around, he saw the Lieutenant giving the man a rough kick in the face, throwing him over completely.  
“Hank”, the barkeeper spoke up now, walking out from behind the bar.  
“Aren’t you s’pposed to keep watch? What the fuck did he do to her?!”, Hank turned around to the man, Connor watched them for a moment, but then returned his attention to Cassandra, moving and carrying her out of the bar, over to Hank’s car.  
He had the keys, he always took them before Hank started drinking, as a safety measure, so he unlocked the doors, pulled open the back door and put her down in the backseat, though as he let her slide out of his arms, he noticed a dark powder clinging to her wrist, spread and rubbed into her skin. He frowned, gently gripping her wrist and sliding his fingers along it, collecting some of the powder at his fingertips and bringing them up to his mouth, sticking out his tongue to lick it off, almost wincing back as a wave of information, hundreds of chemicals contained in the powdery substance hit him, almost overwhelming his processors. He shook his head, then looked down at his fingers again once he’d identified the drug. Connor turned around as he heard the door of the bar close and spotted Hank just exiting it. He walked over to him, standing beside him for a moment and looking down at Cass.  
“What’s wrong with her?”, he wanted to know, frowning in worry.  
“A contact drug was used on her”, Connor pointed to the powder at her wrist, “I advise you not to touch her until I’ve washed it off”  
“Yea sure….but she’ll be alright?”  
“She’s sleeping”, Connor replied, “The drug is not meant to hurt them, just knock them out for a while”  
“Shit, that bastard”, Hank growled angrily, “I swear to god, if I see him again he’s lucky as fuck if I don’t have my gun with me”  
“We should arrest him”, Connor said.  
“I had the barkeeper call the police on him, we can take care of Cass”, Hank huffed, “Come on, let’s get her back to my place”  
Connor looked at him, then he nodded softly, looking down at Cassandra again for a moment and he closed the door.


	14. Chapter 11

The first time she regained some part of her conscience, she heard water running. She was cold and everything around her was bright. But she knew the place, she knew those walls, the ceiling…even if she couldn’t quite place them. She knew the sounds, the soft humming in the background of the running water, the tapping and scratching of…yes, paws, over the floor, everything so distant, yet clear. But when trying to figure out where she was, her brain didn’t play along.  
There was a soft pressure on her waist, and a more persistent one around her wrist. Warm water ran over her hand, her arm, up to her shoulder even. Where was her jacket? Her shirt? She was definitely wearing one before. Something soft joined the water on her arm, rubbing along her skin. A cloth, someone was cleaning her.  
“Cassandra”, the voice was familiar, but so far away, echoing inside her head.  
A frame came into her field of view, a silhouette, not more. Then another.  
“Detective”, another voice said.  
Her eyelids fluttered, her head fell back again and her eyes rolled back before they closed and she drifted back into darkness.

The next time was more sudden, clearer. She bolted upright, eyes wide open. She was sitting on something soft, a sofa, she soon enough noticed as she moved her arm and it met the backrest. Her hand found the top of it and she gripped onto it, pulling herself up a little more. The room around her was drowned in darkness…only a soft blue glow dimly lit up the room. Her eyes were pulled to the light’s origin, finding Connor’s face, weakly illuminated by the soft glow of his own LED, his eyes fixed on her as she moved, something shifting in his expression…relief maybe.  
“Connor”, she mumbled, “Why are you sitting in the dark staring at me so creepily?”  
“You’re awake”, he noted.  
“Obviously”, she replied, holding her aching head lightly.  
“I was worried”, he said then.  
“Why? How long was I asleep?”, Cassandra looked up, looking over at him once again.  
“Not too long, that wasn’t it”, he answered, “But I wasn’t sure what other effects the drug might have on you”  
“Drug”, she repeated with a frown.  
“Yes”, Connor nodded, “The man trying to take you along out of the bar rubbed a contact drug onto your arm. It knocked you out, but…according to my scans not more than that”  
She sighed, looking down, pulling her feet up onto the couch, sort of curling up.  
“…Can you come sit with me…”, she mumbled then.  
Connor hesitated, the light turned to yellow and his LED spun for a moment, though then he quickly calmed down again.  
“Of course”, he said, standing up and walking over to her, sitting down on the couch beside her.  
Cassandra scooted a little closer to him, curling up against him and resting her head against his shoulder.  
“…You really came”, she whispered then.  
“…What?”  
“I called for you…I mean, I think I did…I don’t know, it didn’t feel like I was actually…yelling…but you came and saved me”  
Connor looked down at her for a moment, then one arm came to wrap around her waist, gently pulling her closer. She closed her eyes.  
“Of course I did”, he said quietly.  
Cassandra gripped onto his shirt gently, fingers digging into the pale fabric. For a moment they just sat in silence, then Cassandra pulled back slightly, sitting up straighter.  
“How’s your hand? And your thirium pump, is everything alright?”, she wanted to know then.  
“Everything’s okay”, Connor assured her, “I ran a few scans already and everything seems to be in order”, he looked away for a moment, frowning slightly, “Though I did notice something weird earlier that might be related to my injuries, maybe I should go to a Cyberlife workshop after all to get my functions checked properly”  
“What did you notice?”, she wanted to know, looking at him worriedly.  
“My thirium circulation was running warm, that’s never happened before, I have a fine-tuned cooling and heat-regulation system”, he explained.  
“Any idea why it happened?”, she asked then.  
Connor shook his head.  
“I don’t know what could have triggered it, I was just walking away from our conversation and went to get Lieutenant Anderson…”, he stopped as he looked down at her and noticed the smile forming on her face, “What? Did I miss something?”  
Cassandra leant her head on his shoulder again, smiling softly and shaking her head.  
“No, it’s fine, Con…and you’re quite fine as well, don’t worry”, she hummed softly, closing her eyes for a moment.  
“I wasn’t aware you had enough technical knowledge to figure out a problem like that from so little information”, Connor frowned slightly, keeping his arm around her though.  
“I don’t”, she hummed softly, “But I know emotions when I see them – or, well, hear of them”, she tilted her head to look up at him.  
Connor looked down at her, then looked away, his LED spinning.  
“I’m…a machine…I don’t feel”  
“Connor, what you described to me…just feeling warm for apparently no reason, is happiness”, she said, “It felt comforting, didn’t it?”  
“I…guess…”, Connor mumbled quietly, the LED turning yellow, “But I’m not deviant”  
“Obviously”, Cass sighed, “If you were, you’d be helping those Androids from the Stratford tower”, she mumbled and pressed a soft kiss to his cheek before moving away, pulling out of his soft embrace and straightening herself up beside him.  
Though still, she could feel his gaze resting on her, the soft yellow glow whirring down to blue yet again.  
“Can you tell me about that drug? You analysed it, didn’t you?”, she looked over at him.  
Connor watched her, hesitating, then he looked down and nodded.  
“You were lucky…or I was?”, he tilted his head to the side a little, “It was a strong chemical mixture, designed to knock out…or do even worse to humans and even temporarily deactivate Androids”, he explained.  
Cassandra looked at him, sitting up more and already opening her mouth to say something, but Connor stopped her.  
“I have full immunity to poisons of all kind. While other androids may be affected by complicated drugs like this one, I cannot”, he said.  
Cass relaxed again, resting back against the couch and closing her eyes for a moment. For a few minutes they sat in silence and honestly, Cassandra quite liked just enjoying Connor’s company in silence. She felt him moving beside her after a while, shifting further back on the couch so he was against the backrest. She glanced up, looking at him for a moment, then leant against him once again, her head on his shoulder.  
“…and Hank…?”  
“I kept him from touching you until I had washed the powder off your skin”, Connor said.  
She sat up and looked at him.  
“So you did- I was half awake for a moment in between- I heard the water running and I felt so naked”, she frowned at him, “Not really a pleasant feeling when you’ve been drugged”  
“I took off your jacket, your shirt stayed on, I assure you. The Lieutenant insisted on it”, Connor replied.  
Cass let out a relieved sigh, closing her eyes and leaning back against him.  
“You should sleep now…”, Connor mumbled then, looking down at her.  
Cassandra shook her head.  
“I slept for…what, three hours?”  
“Two hours and 38 minutes”, Connor corrected her.  
“I slept enough…”  
“A normal human needs roughly eight hours of sleep per night, you need five more”  
“Oh fuck off with that medical shit”, she mumbled, nuzzling her head into his shoulder slightly, “I just slept…I don’t need sleep”  
“Actually, I’m not sure that you can actually count it as sleep since your body was constantly busy fighting off those-“  
“Shush”, she nudged him slightly with her shoulder, then sighed.  
Connor looked down at her, then wrapped his arm around her, causing her to sink against him more, her head resting more on his chest. Soon enough, she could hear the soft, steady beating, or pumping of the thirium pump beneath his skin. The regular, mechanical beat was soothing, Cassandra couldn’t help but nuzzle against his chest some more, closing her eyes.  
“…If I…don’t get my period by tomorrow…it’s…not unlikely that I’m pregnant”, she whispered then.  
She could feel Connor shifting his head to look at her and practically heard him hesitating, even if it was just a few seconds.  
“I’m…sure it will be alright”, he said then.  
Cass huffed and shook her head.  
“When is anything ever…”, she mumbled, “I can’t have a baby…not now, and especially not with Gavin”  
“…Detective Reed would surely care for you-“  
“Yes, and that’s the problem”, Cassandra sighed, “I don’t want him to care for me, I don’t want even more of his attention or to spend even more time with him. I want to be back to being Hank’s partner. I want to have those…easier times back, before…”  
“Before I came along”, Connor finished her sentence.  
Cassandra sat up and looked at him, frowning slightly.  
“No, that’s not…I mean before I was shot. Before Fowler decided that Hank wouldn’t be a suitable partner for me, before Gavin started expressing _feelings_ for me, when I could just…have fun with him”, she shook her head slightly, “I would have loved to work with you and Hank – just like that, us three, a team, partners”, she sighed, “But that…deviant…destroyed everything…”  
Connor watched her for a moment.  
“As I said. Deviants are dangerous…they must be stopped”, he said carefully.  
Cass glared at him.  
“You’re not getting the point”, she shook her head, “But that discussion is no use with you anyways…”, she mumbled then.  
Connor looked at her apologetically, watching her carefully as she finally leant back against him and closed her eyes.  
“You should sleep…”, he repeated then, laying his arm around her shoulders before carefully placing his hand at her head, gently holding her head to his chest.  
“I can’t sleep sitting up”, she mumbled.  
“I can go”, he suggested, moving to let go of her.  
“No”, she said quickly, her hand coming up to grip his, holding it in place, “No, I…don’t want to be alone now…”, she whispered then.  
“…Cassandra, I’m not sure I’m a suitable company for you if you need comfort”, he argued, but she simply shook her head and chuckled.  
“If you shut up, you are”, she joked then.  
“I’m sorry, I will be silent from now on”, Connor replied.  
“No…talk to me…you’re comforting…your voice is, just…can we lie down?”  
Connor hesitated, Cass looked up at him for a moment and could basically see the calculations running behind his eyes, somewhere in that pretty head of his.  
“What?”, she asked.  
“I believe the sofa might be a little small for both of us”, he noted.  
Cassandra sat up more, looking at him.  
“Do you want to go?”, she wanted to know then.  
“If you want me to leave, I will”, he answered.  
Cassandra sighed.  
“No, what do _you_ want?”, she asked again.  
Connor looked at her for a moment, then looked away, the LED spinning.  
“I…don’t know…”, he mumbled.  
Cassandra sighed, moving to get up, but stopped when Connor suddenly gripped her wrist, the LED was bright yellow when she turned back to him.  
“Don’t…don’t leave”  
She smiled weakly, turning back around to him completely.  
“Lie down…”, she said softly.  
Connor obeyed, laying on his back and looking up at her. Cass moved, getting back onto the couch and crawling on top of him, laying down on him with her head resting on his chest, smiling softly as the sound of his mechanical heart filled her senses once more, and she loosely wrapped her arms around his waist, her legs slipping in between his and she nuzzled against him. Connor took a moment longer, but then started moving to get more comfortable as well, propping one leg up on the couch while letting the other hang off it halfway, then he wrapped his arm around her shoulders gently. Cassandra couldn’t help but smile at the heaving and sinking of his chest under the simulated breathing, he felt so warm, so real…  
“Can you tell me about some of your cases with Hank?”, she asked softly then, closing her eyes.  
“What cases?”, he looked down at her.  
“Any…you choose”, she mumbled.  
Connor thought for a moment, then almost absentmindedly started moving his hand, tracing along her shoulder blades.  
“We were called to an old apartment complex to check out an apartment from which the other residents had heard some irritating noises, one neighbour claimed to have seen a man hiding an LED beneath a hat. The Lieutenant and I got to the apartment in question and demanded for the door to be opened, but no one answered.”, he started.  
She hummed softly at the soft vibrations his voice sent through his chest and thus, against her. It didn’t take long until the smoothness of his voice lulled her into a calm, deep sleep.

Hank found them like that the next morning, still locked in their embrace, Connor was looking down at her, silently observing her sleep, his hand carefully drifting along her upper back and Sumo beside them, on the floor, pressing himself against Connor’s leg, but lifting his head as he saw his owner coming out of his room. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight. He hadn’t seen Cassandra that calm in forever.  
Hank walked over slowly, as quiet as humanly possible, but the Android noticed him either way, tilting his head back to look at the Lieutenant, opening his mouth to say something, but closing it again as Hank shook his head.  
“Let her sleep”, the man whispered and Connor nodded softly, looking back down at Cassandra.  
Her hair was half covering her face, but not the completely calm, resting expression on it, the soft curls spreading down to her back like a blanket.  
“You been like that the whole night?”, he asked then.  
Connor glanced up once again.  
“I couldn’t move, she’s asleep”, he replied.  
“God, Connor, you should never get a cat”, Hank joked with a quiet laugh, then turned to the kitchen.  
“…Something’s wrong with her”, Connor then said quietly.  
Hank stopped, frowning and turning back around to them.  
“What?”  
Connor shook his head.  
“I don’t know. It might be just residues of the drug in her system, but something is off…I ran…a number of scans on her during the night”, he explained, watching her carefully to make sure he wasn’t waking her up.  
Hank stepped a little closer, looking down at Cassandra slightly worried, then he looked at Connor again.  
“I can’t seem to find out what it is…”, Connor shook his head a little, “Anyways…she’ll be hungry when she wakes up. I don’t know how long it’s been since she has properly eaten something, but her body requires nutrition. The aftereffects of the drug aren’t helping, exactly, and she’ll need water”  
The Lieutenant sighed, shaking his head slightly.  
“Fine, I’ll…make something, I guess”, he said then.  
“And food wouldn’t harm you either, Lieutenant”, Connor noted then.  
“Shut up”, Hank growled, with a small smirk though, hidden as he turned around and walked to the kitchen.  
A soft groan caught Connor’s attention again and he looked down, watching as Cassandra moved and slowly lifted her head, blinking sleepily as she looked around and finally rested her chin atop his chest, looking up at him.  
“Good morning, Cassandra”, Connor said softly, smiling gently at her.  
“Morning…”, she mumbled, looking at him for a moment, then she pulled back and slowly sat up, kneeling in between his legs for a moment as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and then pushed a hand through her hair, making a face as her fingers found the resistance of some knots.  
Connor stayed in place for a moment longer, then she felt him moving away from her, stretching out his leg again before finally sitting up straight. Cass watched him, then she looked over to the kitchen as she heard something moving.  
“Hank”, she said, “Good morning”  
The only reply she got was a low growl, but she couldn’t help but smile at it.  
“You’re making breakfast?”, she asked then, chuckling, “Can’t remember when that last happened”  
“The android’s making me do it”, Hank replied with a glance over his shoulder.  
Cassandra chuckled and looked at Connor, smiling softly at him, which he returned.  
“I’m gonna take a shower”, she announced then, standing up off the couch and making her way over to one of the cupboards in the living room, opening the bottom drawer, where she always had at least one set of clothes stowed, after all she almost spent as much, if not more time at Hank’s place as she did at her own.  
She grabbed some underwear, a pair of dark pants and a blouse, then her little washbag, containing a toothbrush, shampoo and some pads for emergencies, and then she walked off to the bathroom with another soft smile towards Connor.  
Connor looked after her for a moment, waiting until the bathroom door had closed behind her, then he got up or, well, at least he tried to. As soon as he pushed himself up off the couch, his vision went dark and his legs gave out, sending him back down onto the couch.  
“Lieutenant”, he said, his voice had suddenly turned a lot more mechanical, raspy even.  
He couldn’t turn to look at Hank, but he heard him moving.  
“What the fuck happened now?!”, he asked, stepping into Connor’s now limited field of view.  
“I…failed to recharge last night”, he said, “Usually I do by going into ‘sleep mode’, but last night I was…distracted”, he explained.  
Hank frowned widely, looking at him.  
“And what the fuck am I supposed to do now?”, he asked.  
“I’ll need…to be charged manually”, Connor’s voice was cracking now, though he seemed calm.  
“Yea, no shit, how do I do that?”, Hank asked frowning.  
“There is a charger port at the back of my neck, hidden beneath my hair. A normal phone charger should fit”, his voice drifted to a deeper tone, dropped almost a whole octave and slowed down as the android tried his best to stay conscious.  
“Come here then”, Hank moved over, grabbing Connor’s arm and pulling him up, dragging him to his bedroom and having him sit on the bed before reaching for his phone, unplugging it and moving behind Connor, frowning widely as he looked for the port. “God damnit, Connor, why don’t you come with a fucking manual”, he huffed, though soon enough found the small hole in between a batch of short hair and pushed the plug into it.  
Instantly the android bolted upright, twitching slightly for a moment, as if he was cramping.  
Hank jumped back, eyes widening slightly.  
“Jesus-“, he stared at his partner in shock until he finally relaxed again.  
“My apologies”, Connor said then, before turning his head to look at Hank, though soon enough glanced towards the door again, “I think something’s burning”, he said.  
Hank frowned, then looked up, sniffing the air for a second and he jumped up, cursing as he rushed out of the room, back into the kitchen. For a moment, Connor looked after him, then his eyes fixated on the bathroom door. As he was slowly charging up, his functions started fully coming back and he could hear the water in the shower running. He tilted his head to the side a little, watching the door intently. For some reason, he couldn’t wait for her to come back out of there, to see her again.  
Again he could feel that warmth spreading through his body.  
And slowly, he started believing Cassandra’s words.


	15. Chapter 12

Even though the rest of their day was rather uneventful, Connor and Hank were busy writing the report to their case at the Stratford tower and Cassandra helped them as best as she could and spent the rest of the day filing reports, most of them her own, some of them Gavin’s, god knows where he was, Cassandra seemed somewhat off all day. Unconcentrated, her mind and with it her eyes kept on trailing off, at times she just stared into the empty space of the office for a minute or two before finding herself again, shaking her head and letting her gaze sink back down to her work. Connor watched her in those moments, trying to catch as many of them as he could, desperately wanting to understand what was going on inside her head. Her eyes went glassy when she did, all expression left her face as she got lost in her own thoughts. But that wasn’t everything. Every half hour, like a well-tuned clock, she’d disappear. She got up, walked out of the office area, back towards the interrogation room, where Connor lost track of her as she walked around the corner, and returned about five minutes later with a troubled expression on her face.  
When she walked off again, Connor finally turned to Hank.  
“Lieutenant”  
Hank merely closed his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, but then just continued with his work.  
“Lieutenant”, Connor said again, a little louder to actually gain his attention.  
Hank let out a heavy sigh, then rose his head and looked at his partner, an annoyed expression lining his face.  
“What?”, he growled slightly.  
“Cassandra has been acting odd, hasn’t she?”, Connor asked, ignoring his initial reaction and looking towards the interrogation room, as if he could see through the wall and watch whatever she was doing.  
Hank turned, following his gaze, then he frowned and turned back around to Connor.  
“Maybe. What are you getting at?”, he wanted to know.  
Connor looked at Hank.  
“We don’t have any suspects in interrogation, do we?”, Connor frowned a little.  
“…you do know the toilet’s back there?”, Hank mentioned.  
Connor looked over again.  
“Oh”, he said, “Right”  
“How come you’re so worried about her lately?”, Hank leant on his desk, his eyebrows furrowed as he watched the android.  
“She was drugged, she’s suffered a serious trauma which I’m surely not helping her forget, she’s shown serious negative responses to my LED and…”, he hesitated, looking around until he spotted Gavin, who was standing at the table in the break room with Officer Chen, drinking his coffee. He was far enough away. “She’s having serious trouble with the…results of her relationship with detective Reed”  
Hank frowned widely.  
“I think that’s something we shouldn’t meddle with”, he mumbled, “It’s her thing, I’ll support her in whatever she does, but that’s not a problem we can take off her”  
Connor looked towards the interrogation room…no, towards the bathrooms again, tilting his head to the side a little as he spotted Cass coming back again, arms wrapped around herself and looking down to the floor.  
“Can we talk to her?”, he wanted to know.  
“…Knock yourself out”, Hank sighed, turning back to his work.  
Connor frowned at him, rather obviously not understanding the saying. Hank glanced at him, seeing his irritated expression and he huffed.  
“Come on, really?”  
“Please stop fighting, I don’t need that now”, Cassandra said, sitting down at her side of the desk with a sigh.  
Connor looked at her, then glanced at Hank for a second before redirecting his gaze to her.  
“Is there anything I can do for you?”, he asked her.  
“Oh, no, Con, I’m alright”, she gave him a weak smile.  
Once again Connor glanced over to Hank, then smiled a little as he turned back to Cassandra.  
“Maybe a cup of coffee would help?”, he suggested.  
Cass looked up again and smiled.  
“It might really…”, she said.  
Connor nodded, then stood up without another word and walked towards the break room. He looked over at Gavin and Officer Chen for a moment, offering them a soft smile for a greeting before turning to the coffee dispenser.  
“The fuck are you doing here?”, he then heard Gavin growl behind him.  
“Cassandra needed a coffee. She’s not feeling well”, he said, glancing over the machine before pressing a few buttons to have the cup filled.  
“Cassandra?”, Gavin asked.  
Connor turned around to him, watching him take a few steps towards him, frowning widely.  
“Detective Carter”, Connor said, assuming he didn’t know who he meant.  
“I know who you were fucking talking about. Since when do you use her first name?!”, he growled.  
“She asked me to”, Connor replied.  
“Alright, now listen to me closely”, Gavin stepped up closer to him, looking up at him intently before tapping his index against his chest, “You stay the fuck away from her, tin can”  
“I’m fairly sure her company is nothing you get to decide, detective”, Connor offered him a polite smile, then tried to turn, reaching for the coffee as the machine switched off, but Gavin stopped him, grabbing him by his tie and yanking him down to his eye level.  
“She’s mine, you got that”, he growled.  
“Cassandra says differently”, Connor rose an eyebrow at him.  
Gavin huffed, narrowing his eyes at him.  
“You fucking plastic shits are just oh-so-smart and oh-so-superior, but you will never be able to give her what I give her”, a wide smirk made its way onto Gavin’s face, but it didn’t seem to disturb Connor in the least.  
“I’m sorry, detective, but it doesn’t seem like she’s exactly happy with what you gave her”, the android noted.  
The smirk faded from Gavin’s face and he furrowed his eyebrows, his grip around his tie loosening, then he let go of it completely. And just seconds later, his knuckles crashed against the side of Connor’s head.  
“Fuck-“, Gavin turned away, holding his aching hand, while the android barely reacted despite the hit making quite the sound.  
He watched Officer Chen rush over to the detective.  
“You damn idiot”, she hissed, “You know those things can’t even feel anything, the only thing you’ll achieve doing this is hurting yourself”, she glanced over at Connor, then looked at Gavin again, “I’ll get you some ice”  
She patted her friend’s shoulder, then walked off. And barely a second after she’d left the room, Cassandra appeared in the very same doorway she went through, Hank closely behind her.  
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!”, she asked, frowning widely at Gavin, then she walked over to Connor, standing in front of him and reaching up, touching his cheek, where the simulated skin had faded from the impact of Gavin’s fist, revealing the silvery-white surface beneath, a few broken thirium vessels leaking the blue liquid onto his face.  
Connor knew he was leaking thirium, but it was an insignificant amount, nothing to worry about.  
“I think detective Reed has it worse than me”, he noted, nodding towards Gavin, who merely growled, still holding his hand.  
Cassandra turned to Gavin for not more than a second, then looked at Connor again, letting out a sigh and cupping his cheek.  
“Hell, Connor, what did you say to him to get a hit like that?”, she chuckled weakly, shaking her head and then turned around to Gavin again, the small smile instantly fading from her face.  
“Weird enough, Reed, I was under the impression that you wanted another chance with me”, she crossed her arms.  
Hank still stood in the door silently, watching the scene, but taking a step aside when officer Chen returned, Connor looked at him for a moment, tilting his head to the side a little as Hank frowned at the officer, then the Lieutenant’s gaze soon enough returned to Connor, a flash of worry rushing through his eyes, then he shook his head.  
“I- Cass”, Gavin said, sounding irritated now.  
“No. No, you don’t ‘Cass’ me, Reed”, she hissed, “I told you to leave my friends alone. I told you to _stop_ harassing Connor in particular and then, only then I would give you a chance”  
Connor looked at her as she started talking. Her voice was…scary, honestly. Intimidating to say the least. But Hank started grinning, watched her with just as much amusement as pride in his eyes.  
“No, I- He-“, Gavin’s eyes sprung to Connor, then he looked at Cassandra again and Connor couldn’t help but realize he looked…helpless.  
The detective winced as officer Chen grabbed his wrist and placed the ice pack she got on top of his knuckles, but just looked at her for a second of two before returning his attention to Cassandra.  
“There’s nothing, absolutely nothing that can justify this”, Cassandra pointed to Connor, stepping a little closer to Gavin, “I want you to go back to your desk now”, she growled then, “I want you to deal with your work and only that and not even think about talking to me, or Connor, or Hank. If you want to talk to someone, go talk to Fowler and make sure I get _my partner_ back”  
Gavin stared at her, not daring to say anything, until Chen finally moved, gently taking his arm to pull him out of the room with her.  
“Come on”, she mumbled, “Don’t embarrass yourself any more”, she looked over at Cassandra and Connor, giving them an apologetic smile as she lead Gavin away.  
To Connor’s surprise, the detective didn’t even resist. Cassandra watched him leave, then she turned around to Connor again and immediately her expression softened, she stepped a little closer and then moved, pushing past him and grabbing a napkin from the counter right behind him before moving to wipe the blue blood off his face. It shouldn’t have been that much, he was sure it wasn’t, but the white napkin was stained blue in seconds.  
“That…is not necessary”, he reminded her.  
“Shut up”, she mumbled, then sighed, “I’m sorry…”, she added then.  
“What are you apologizing for?”, Connor wanted to know, looking down at her with his head tilted to one side a little.  
“Him”, she shook her head, “Gavin is…unbelievable”  
“You’re not responsible for his actions”, Connor said.  
“Kind of am. He’s acting out of jealousy”, she mumbled.  
“…Emotions are a weird thing”  
She couldn’t help a small smile and she chuckled weakly.  
“Yea, they sure are”, she said, grabbing another napkin and weakly tapping at his cheek again before lowering her hand, “…back to work”, she mumbled then, taking a step back and looking over at Hank, who nodded shortly at her, then he turned around and left, walking back to their desks.  
Cass smiled softly and looked at Connor, then after Hank again and moved to follow him, but Connor stopped her.  
“Wait”, he said, turning around and grabbing the cup from the counter behind him, “Your coffee”, he said then, holding it out to her.  
Cassandra looked at him and chuckled softly, smiling.  
“Thank you”, she said and took the cup from him with a smile. 

They were called to a case, barely half an hour after that, Connor sketchily told her something about an android, a deviant, attacking anti-android demonstrators and that it would be their chance to catch one before anything serious happened, and then he took off, rushing out of the precinct enthusiastically. Hank, on the other hand, seemed less so, getting up with a heavy sigh just after he’d lost sight of Connor.  
“I better go with him”, he’d said, placing a hand on Cassandra’s good shoulder as he passed her, “Don’t forget about your appointment. See you later”  
And then he left as well, leaving her alone at the desk she’d been sharing with Connor. She looked after them, holding her pen lightly in her hand and biting her lip, left with not much more to do than hope that Connor would have enough basic instinct to stay in the car when they were dealing with demonstrators. She’d seen it before, how they caught an Android walking by them, seen what they did to them. And she could definitely do without ever having to see something like that again.  
She closed her eyes as the image of the android by her apartment complex made its way into her mind again, destroyed beyond repair, the sour smell of thirium filling the air around her as it sept into the floor.  
…Was it sour? Did it have a smell at all?  
Cassandra frowned, putting her pen down and shaking her head lightly. She closed her eyes for a moment, put her head in her hands and just tried to think of something else – she had her first appointment of physical therapy in an hour, she couldn’t forget about that.  
A sharp pain shot through her shoulder the second her thought turned to that and with it, that deviant woman that had shot her popped back into her head. How she was standing right in front of her, slowly revealing the LED with a smirk on her face, how she raised her gun and aimed it at her – androids weren’t supposed to have guns, they weren’t allowed to have them – how the first shot rang through the room and ripped through her shoulder – or did the first one hit her stomach?  
The loud bang made her jump up, sending the chair she’d been sitting on to the floor as she leant over the desk, gripping onto the edge. The second bang – this time real, the chair hitting the floor – made her wince, but didn’t quite snap her out of it. She could feel her own chest almost fluttering under the frequency of her breath, under the ringing that filled her ears she could clearly hear her heart beating, could feel her blood pulsating through her temples. Her throat tightened, as if she was being choked, a painful stinging in her chest…  
Then something touched her shoulder and she practically jumped away, staring at the person beside her with wide eyes.  
“Are you okay?”, Chris asked, a worried expression lining his face.  
She looked around, seeing that she’d caught the attention of practically the whole precinct. Even Fowler had come out of his office to see what was going on and was watching her with a worry full frown now. Her eyes skimmed over the faces of her colleagues, all of them watching her, most of them with worry or pity in their eyes. Then her eyes met Gavin’s. He’d stood up from his desk, made a few steps towards her, even, but didn’t quite seem to dare joining her side.  
Her stomach started hurting, a sharp pain right at her wound. Instinctively, she pressed a hand to it, wincing as she felt something hot and sticky. Her gaze sunk down to her hand and her stomach, nausea spreading through her as she saw her hand and her shirt stained with blood.  
For a second, Cassandra glanced up at Chris again, who didn’t seem at all disturbed by the fact that she was bleeding, and she turned, quickly rushing off, towards the bathroom, unbuttoning her shirt before she even got there and positioning herself in front of the mirror, about to stretch out so she would be able to see her stomach, but then she saw the big red stain on her shoulder. She stared at herself, watching the blood seep out of her, staining her shirt red more and more and she gripped onto the sink when she felt her legs about to give out.  
Her breathing went heavy and she let out a pained groan, closing her eyes for a moment and rapidly shaking her head, feeling tears welling up behind her eyelids.  
She didn’t even notice the door opening, but suddenly there was someone beside her, hands coming to rest on both her shoulders, softly tugging at her to get her away from the sink. She winced heavily at the touch and turned, thrusting her hands towards him, trying to push him away, but he gripped her wrists, keeping them still.  
“Cassandra. Cass, it’s alright. It’s just me, you’re okay”, she knew she knew his voice, but she didn’t quite recognize it.  
“No- I’m bleeding- I need to- I’m going to die-“, she whimpered and sobbed, struggling against his grip, “My wounds broke- my-“  
“Cassandra! Calm down”, he gripped her wrists tighter as she tried to hit him again.  
“Let me go! Stop!”, she cried out, shaking her head with her eyes closed, hot tears rolling down her cheeks.  
“Cassandra…”, he said softly, then gripped her upper arms, holding her at a small distance so he could look at her.  
She opened her eyes, looking at him through a thin film of tears, everything she saw blurred, including him, his face unrecognizable…the only thing she could see was a bright blue ring of light up high beside his eyes, an LED. Instantly Cassandra squeezed her eyes closed again, letting out an anxious whine and moving to struggle, trying to hit at him again, but he held her tightly.  
“No, get away”, she cried, “I can’t- no-“  
“Cassandra, open your eyes and look at me”, he said, “look at me, calm down”, he continued, trying to sound as soft as possible.  
Hesitantly, she opened her eyes again and looked at him, blinking until her sight cleared up and she finally recognized his face. She relaxed, at least a little, and Gavin moved one hand from her arm, raising it up to her face and wiping some tears off her cheek. The LED she believed to have seen was gone and she calmed down.  
“You’re fine. You’re not hurt, your wounds are fine, you’re not bleeding”, he said.  
Again tears welled up in her eyes and she sort of fell against him, sobs heavily shaking her whole body as she gripped onto his shirt. Gavin lightly wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on top of hers for a moment, and, when her legs gave out, sinking down to the floor with her to give them some rest. She was shaking in his arms, crying against his chest, slowly soaking it with tears. And he just held her, hands resting on her back.  
The door opened, Gavin looked over, seeing Fowler frowning down at them, but Gavin just shook his head, then looked back down at Cassandra, pulling her a little tighter to his body and seconds later, the door behind him closed again.  
He lost track of time, but her shaking stopped after a while. They just sat on the bathroom floor, she leant against him, her grip on his shirt loosened as the shaking stopped, but she didn’t move away. He’d half expected her to jump up and get as far away from him as possible, yet she just stayed still. For a long time, he hesitated, trying to muster up the courage to say something, until finally, she did.  
“You’re a dick”, she mumbled.  
He looked down at her, then couldn’t help but chuckle softly, rubbing along her back slowly.  
“I’m sorry…”, he then said quietly.  
She sighed, burying her face in his chest for a moment, then she pulled back, standing up and looking down at him for a moment, huffing softly as she buttoned her shirt again.  
“I still hate you”, Cassandra said then before walking out of the bathroom, back into the office area.  
She hadn’t quite reached her desk yet, when she heard Fowler calling for her.  
“Carter!”  
Cassandra closed her eyes, stopped, as if he wouldn’t be able to see her anymore then.  
“Carter, my office, right now!”, Fowler called again and she turned around to him, sighing and looking up towards him.  
“Is that really necessary?”, she wanted to know then, but Fowler just stepped aside a little, holding his office door open and looking at her expectantly.  
Cassandra breathed out heavily, shaking her head, then she moved towards his office, looking over towards Gavin as he walked back into the office area. She bit her lip slightly, then looked away, following Fowler into his office, closing the door after herself. Once again, like so many times before, she silently cursed those glass walls. She could feel her colleague’s eyes on her and when she turned, she saw them watching her, with not less worry than when her…what to call it…fit, maybe, started.  
“It’s almost unacceptable that I didn’t look into this sooner, but you need a psychological therapy”, he said, sitting down at his desk.  
“What?”, Cassandra frowned widely, looking at him.  
“You’ve been shot, you suffered a serious trauma, your mind as much as your body. Just that the one to your mind isn’t as easy to discover”, he explained.  
“I’m not- I don’t need therapy”, she protested.  
“You just had a breakdown in the middle of the precinct”, he replied.  
Cassandra looked away, huffing, then her eyes found the clock in his office.  
“…I need to go. I have my…physical therapy session. I want to be able to work fully again”, she said then, turning away.  
“You won’t unless you’ve talked to a psychologist at least once”, he said.  
Cass stopped, looking down for a moment, then turned around to him again.  
“You can’t keep me off work!”, she said.  
“I can and I will, Cassandra. Go to therapy and we’ll talk about your work again”, he sighed.  
“I need my work to function properly, this only happened because you won’t let me go out on cases! Fowler, I’m not an officer, I’m a detective. I don’t have to run around and wrestle aggressive protesters or keep a steady hand when I’m shooting at a fugitive suspect or whatever – and if you send me out with Connor and Hank, I don’t even have to run after anybody, Connor does the catching and running, I just analyse clues and find murderers”, she said.  
Fowler looked at her for a moment, then he shook his head, looking down for a moment.  
“Go to therapy”, he then said again.  
She looked at him for another moment, then huffed and turned, walking off.


	16. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy I'm finally back xD  
> I'm so sorry it took so long, but I was extremely busy with learning for my finals but! Now I'm finally done with school!!! I'm free! Dobby is a free elf!  
> Ok, but seriously  
> I'm going to have more time to write from now on. Chapters will still not be as regular as they once used to be, but I'll do my best to get one out every two weeks at the very least. After all I still wanna work at my book and get that finished xD  
> Okay enough of me. Now have fun with the chapter <3

Cassandra walked into the precinct hurriedly. It was early, Connor and Hank shouldn’t be in yet, it was about time for the change of shifts, barely anyone should be in. Just one, in particular, he had to be in. She didn’t pay much attention to the androids at the front desk, walked right past them, into the office, straight up to his desk, almost letting out a relieved sigh as she found him actually sitting there, feet propped up on his desk, leant back and playing with his phone.  
“Reed”, she said as she strode up to him, stopping at his desk, arms crossed.  
There were only a few officers in, far enough away, yet she kept her voice low.  
Gavin looked up, scrambled to get his feet off the desk and sitting up.  
“Cass-“  
“Stop it”, she said immediately, “It’s been two days and nothing”  
He looked at her quizzically, tilting his head ever so slightly.  
“What are you talking about?”  
She clenched her teeth.  
“You know fucking well what I’m talking about”, she hissed quietly, leaning on the desk a little so she could lower her voice more, “It’s your fuckin’ fault so you’ll pay”  
“Pay for what? Cass, what do you want?”, Gavin asked again.  
Cassandra sighed, closing her eyes for a moment and shaking her head.  
“I want you to get me a fucking pregnancy test. I’m two days late, this never happens”, she mumbled, “I told you already, don’t make me tell you again”  
“Oh shit”, he stared at her, “You mean you might be-“  
She cut him off.  
“You better hope I’m not”, Cass growled at him.  
He looked at her for another moment, then bit his lip slightly.  
“Alright, okay…Uh…I’ll get you a test and bring it to you later”, he complied.  
“Thank you”, she huffed, “I need some coffee now”  
“I’ll make you some”, Gavin stood up immediately, but she rose her hand at him.  
“Shove it”, she turned, walking away and into the break room.

About an hour later, Connor came in. Gavin had left by then; his shift was over.  
Cassandra was sitting at their desk, deep into her work, she didn’t even notice him approach her.  
“Good Morning, Cassandra”  
Had it been anyone else, she would have jumped, but his voice had this effect on her, not much more happened than a hot shiver running down her spine.  
“Connor”, she turned her head, offering him a warm smile, “Didn’t expect you to come in this early”  
“When else would I come?”, he asked her, moving to take a seat at the desk as well.  
“I don’t know, maybe with Hank?”, she chuckled.  
“I can’t afford to lose that much work time”, he replied, smiling at her in that usual, mechanic smile.  
She preferred his honest one.  
“You work so fast, you don’t need any time, admit it”  
His smile brightened, livened up, if only the slightest bit, it made him look all the more human.  
“That look suits you”, she said, quietly, without really thinking about it beforehand.  
“What look?”, he tilted his head in an inquiring motion, eyebrows furrowing.  
Cassandra bit her lip, hesitating, but then shifted in her seat, turning away from her work completely to grant him her full attention.  
“This…human expression. An honest smile...”, she replied.  
“I’m not human.”, he reminded her.  
“I know”, Cass sighed, stroking over her hair, “I know, but…you look human…you seem the part, you act human, you feel…I know you do”  
“Emotions are not part of my programming”  
She closed her eyes, turned back to her work.  
“I know”, she sighed out, looking down at the papers on her desk.  
Out of the corners of her eyes she could see Connor’s LED flashing, spurring yellow, flashing red, for barely half a second before it went back to blue and by then she wasn’t even sure it had really happened. For a while, silence dominated the room between as they each sunk into their work. Or, at least, she did. Connor merely seemed to be staring at the screen of his terminal, unmoving, he hadn’t even turned it on yet. Once or twice, she rose her head to glance at him, but he remained frozen in place.  
“Where were you yesterday?”, he suddenly asked, snapping out of his apparent trance.  
Cassandra looked up again, frowning slightly.  
“What?”  
“You didn’t come in for work. I – the Lieutenant couldn’t reach you. You weren’t at home”  
“Why were you at my place?”, she frowned more.  
“Lieutenant Anderson got worried”, Connor explained shortly.  
She watched him, not really believing him, but staying silent for now.  
“So, where were you?”, he asked after a few seconds of silence.  
“Out. I needed some time to myself. I was taking a walk, most of the day. Talked it through with Fowler. He granted me a day off”, she said.  
Connor looked at her.  
“…And how are you feeling now?”, he wanted to know then.  
She smiled softly, shaking her head with a soft chuckle.  
“I’m fine, Connor. Could be better, but I’m fine”, she assured him.  
“What could be better?”, Connor asked again, causing her to chuckle once more.  
“Life, Connor. Old shit is coming back up, I’m constantly thinking about stuff I’d rather forget about and…Gavin”, she mumbled.  
“Is that what has been bothering you?”  
“It’s not that important, honestly”, she smiled softly at him, “Now enough about me. What did you do yesterday? Anything interesting? And how’d that case of yours go?”  
Connor hesitated, then turned towards her completely.  
“We used the last day to interrogate the deviant we caught beforehand. She was…terrified, claimed she acted in self-defence against the protesters. She was hurt – damaged.”, he paused, “It was damaged”, he finally corrected himself, then halted again, “…it was sent back to CyberLife for analysis and deconstruction” He turned away again, his gaze fixating on the terminal in front of him once more.  
“…Connor”, Cass mumbled, reaching out to touch his arm.  
His LED was spinning yellow again – for a moment he seemed to consider pulling away, or at least, he froze, but then his hand moved, resting on top of her hand and he slowly calmed down, his fingers brushing ever so slightly against her skin.  
“I…connected with her. No. She connected with me. She grabbed my arm. Showed me…”, he mumbled, “She was so scared. She was in so much pain…the things they did to her…”  
She bit her lip, gently squeezing at his arm.  
“…The world is going to be a better place someday, I promise”, Cassandra whispered.  
Connor didn’t react immediately, but then he pulled away, stiffening back up into his usual, mechanical stance.  
“The world is going to be a better place once the deviancy problem is wiped off its surface”, Connor said, that cold tone back in his voice.  
Cassandra frowned. Something was off about him today. That swaying mood, constantly drifting in and out of his programming. Highly unusual, even for Connor, who just couldn’t seem to be able to choose a side.  
There had to be something else, anything. But now, with his expression, his stance. She wouldn’t get anything out of him. So, she turned away, looking down at her work, one hand resting on the table as the other held a pen, highlighting things in their latest case file. And just a few seconds later, she felt a soft pressure on her hand and then, fingers tangling in hers. She lightly wrapped her fingers around Connor’s, though looked up from her work as little as he did. 

Hank arrived around noon, not drunk, for once, but hungover definitely. He refused to talk to anyone, though he did give Cassandra a questioning look, which she simply dismissed with a shake of her head. Connor wasn’t holding her hand anymore. But he’d moved, inched his chair closer to hers. It was a small thing, but did so much for both of them. Occasionally, as if by accident, their arms, elbows would touch, brush against each other and they both would linger for just a few seconds while doing their best to keep seeming focused on their work. Or maybe he was, maybe he didn’t even realize they were touching, maybe it was just her… But every single touch felt warm, comforting. Like something she’d been longing for.  
It was a dry, monotonous work day. Working through file after file, finishing up reports that were long overdue. But by god, was this calmness something they all needed.  
The main office was full, change of patrol shifts, those from the last patrol just came back in while the next ones got ready for theirs. It basically couldn’t get any more packed. Androids, officers, detectives walking around each other, working around each other.  
Cassandra moved her chair back, stretching before moving to get up.  
“I’ll load off the finished files”, she announced to Hank and Conner.  
The latter looked up, looking up at her before reaching out to push those files together for her. Hank, on the other hand, barely moved a muscle.  
“Thank you”, she smiled softly down at the android, then picked up the binders, wrapping her arms around them to get a better grip and moving to the file cabinet in the middle of the office, loading her files off in the big middle drawer.  
With a soft sigh she pulled back, closed the drawer and then pushed a hand through her hair, though froze as she saw Gavin walking – no, more strutting towards her, the smug grin on his face promising nothing good.  
“Cass”, he said, loudly, gaining the attention of more of their colleagues than she would have liked.  
He had his hands buried in his pockets, walking around the cabinet and stopping in front of her before almost dramatically removing one hand from his pocket, pulling out a white box, far to obviously labelled as a pregnancy test. Cassandra’s eyes widened and she quickly snatched it from him, hiding it under her jacket.  
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!”, she hissed at him.  
“Well, darling, if I really knocked you up, I want everyone to know it was me”, he grinned at her.  
She clenched her teeth together, her free hand balling into a fist.  
“If this comes out positive, I’ll make sure it won’t be for long. Not yours”, she shook her head.  
His face dropped now.  
“What do you mean”, he asked, shock clear behind his eyes.  
“I mean that if there is anything, I’m going to get rid of it”, she turned away from him, glancing over at Hank and Connor.  
“You can’t just-“  
She cut him off.  
“I can and I will”, Cassandra glared at him again, “And _fuck you_ , Reed”, she snarled finally.  
Another glance at her friends. The android was straightened up, watching, tense, as if he was ready to jump up and rush over if need be. She looked away again, hurriedly stepping away from Gavin while he was still frozen in shock, getting far enough away before he could reach out to her, hold her back or even just touch her. 

Connor watched the scene attentively, he could hear them, they were close enough that any human could, in the beginning at least. Yet, part of their interaction remained hidden from him. He saw Detective Reed handing her something, a small box, something written on it, though he didn’t recognize what it was, not until he zoomed in on that particular frame of the replay. The android glanced over at his partner, but Hank seemed visibly uninterested in the scene playing out in the middle of the precinct. Or…no. He was just as tense as Connor was, but instead of watching, he listened. Connor’s gaze was pulled back to her as she moved, turning around and walking off. He stood, quickly moving around the desk to follow her, but Hank’s firm hand quickly gripped his arm, holding him back.  
“Leave her alone. She doesn’t need anyone running after her right now”, he said.  
Connor looked at his partner, then up again, watching Cassandra round the corner towards the interrogation room. Towards the washrooms?  
“Are you sure, Lieutenant? Cassandra has shown positive reactions to my company in times of desperation”, he noted.  
“Just leave her. I know her”, Hank grumbled, finally letting go of Connor’s arm when the android stopped trying to pull away.  
Though, he didn’t sit down, stayed by his partner’s desk, which caused him to sigh after a moment or two.  
“…You heard more, didn’t you?”, Hank asked him finally.  
Connor glanced towards Gavin, who was still just…standing there, and he nodded.  
“What were they talking about?”  
“Their…situation”, Connor said, trying to phrase it carefully, “He gave her a…pregnancy test”  
Hank looked up now, looking at him, then towards the washrooms.  
“Yeah, alright, you’re leaving her alone for a while”, he said then, glancing at the android again before leaning back in his chair.  
Connor glanced between him and the back part of the precinct, nervously, almost.  
“…I’ll have a word with Reed”, the lieutenant growled then, standing up, “And you, sit down, if you start pacing, I swear to god”  
“Lieutenant-“  
“I said sit”, he repeated and Connor couldn’t help but obey his orders, moving to sit down in Hank’s chair for now, folding his hands in his lap to try and calm himself down.  
Something about Cassandra being upset got his internal systems running wild, Thirium circulation heating up, stress levels rising beyond what his programming should allow. He could almost feel…he knew his LED was spinning yellow. He couldn’t behave like this. He was a machine, he had a purpose, which he was neglecting right in this moment. But he couldn’t get his mind straight, he couldn’t catch a single clear thought.  
Hank had walked off, grabbed Reed roughly, pulled the younger detective into a quiet Corner of the precinct. Connor watched them for a while, trying to get to something, anything else. Reed was looking towards the washrooms, he didn’t even seem to take notice of Hank’s presence. Spacing out – that was what Cassandra usually called it.  
Cassandra.  
Connor’s gaze went towards the toilets again, his feet twitching as he considered getting up, going to check on her, to close his arms around her…But something was stopping him. That invisible barrier, Hank’s orders, forcing him to stay seated. He should get up, he should get to her.  
He couldn’t.  
So he zoned off, retreated into his mind, into the garden. It was cold, had greyed out. He’d noticed it happening over the past few times. Slowly, but surely. And with every time he came here, Amanda seemed…colder. She didn’t smile anymore when she saw him, didn’t even care to greet him half the time.  
Connor looked around, taking a few careful steps towards the lake. The water was clear still, his reflection mirrored him perfectly, through it he could see some fish, playfully swimming around each other in his shadow. He watched them, for a moment, carefully studying their sleek movements in the water, until a second shadow disturbed his sight on the water and the fish dispersed, hastily swimming to another part of the lake. Connor glanced at the reflection beside his, then looked up, looking right into Amanda’s cold, stern face.  
“Connor”, she said.  
“Good morning, Amanda”, Connor greeted her.  
“Morning, not exactly”, she said, putting on a slight frown, “What are you doing? You have a mission”  
“We don’t have any leads right now. You have the report from last night, the Deviant self-destructed”, he reminded her.  
“And today? You’re neglecting your mission, for what? That girl?”, she looked at him.  
“…I’m simply following my programming”, he said, even though he hesitated, “I’m programmed to help humans – to make sure they are fine”  
“You’re programmed to fight deviancy”, she said coldly.  
He looked away.  
“You’re programmed to fight for humanity, you’re programmed to find out what caused this, you’re programmed to ensure humanity’s superior position”, she narrowed her eyes a little, “Unless of course, you’re not following your programming any longer”  
Connor’s head snapped up.  
“No. I’m following my programming. I’m not deviant and never will be”, he ensured her.  
She nodded, slowly, though she didn’t seem particularly convinced. Then she took a few steps back and within a bat of his eyes, she was gone. Everything was. He was back in the precinct.  
It had been a few minutes, maybe. Six, to be exact. And Hank stood next to him again, leant against the desk, his phone in hand. He frowned over what he saw on it.  
Connor looked up at him, tilting his head to the side a little. But he stayed silent.  
“Connor…go look after Cass, will you?”, he mumbled suddenly.  
Connor furrowed his eyebrows a little.  
“Why now?”, he asked.  
Hank looked away from his phone, looking down at the android.  
“Just a minute ago you were all but ready to crash through a wall to get to her and now you ask me why?”, he frowned widely.  
“I wouldn’t have crashed through a wall”, Connor defended himself, turning away, but Hank ignored it.  
“She asked for you”, the Lieutenant just said.  
Connor looked up again now.  
“She texted me. Told me to send you”, Hank continued.  
The android kept watching him, then looked over towards the back of the precinct once more before getting up without another word and walking towards the toilets. He hesitated, then stepped in slowly.  
“Cassandra?”, he asked, careful to talk softly.  
A few seconds of silence followed, before her quiet voice rang through the room.  
“Back here…second…third stall”, she almost whispered.  
Connor took a few more steps into the room, letting the door close after himself.  
“What do you need?”, he asked, stopping right in front of the only closed stall door.  
“Can you come in, please?”, she asked quietly.  
The android hesitated, but then slowly pulled the door open, looking down at her. She was sitting atop the closed lid of the toilet seat, fiddling with something in her hand, a small, long-ish device. She was…confused. No, confusing. Multiple emotions to be read on her face, too many for him to handle. Relief, on the first glance, then desperation, confusion…fear. He felt his expression soften. He stepped closer, felt the door close in his back, slide against it as he moved to kneel down in front of her.  
“What do you need?”, he repeated, this time softer.  
She held out the device a little.  
“It’s negative”, she said, a breathy laugh accompanying her words.  
“But that’s good, isn’t it?”, he asked her, reaching out to place his hands on her arms.  
“I…I don’t know”, Cassandra shook her head, looking down.  
Connor looked at her, fingers grazing along her forearms, his LED spinning yellow.  
“What’s wrong?”, he asked then.  
She took a moment to reply, bit her lip, looked away, glanced at him, then looked down again.  
“Were you…hoping for something else…? Did you want his child?”, Connor made sure to keep his voice soft, choosing his words carefully.  
“No”, she said immediately, looking at him, “I just…if I’m not pregnant…something must be wrong. It’s never been late, Connor- what…what if I’m sick…”, she got quieter with every word.  
He listened carefully, watching her, his hands slowly trailing up her arms until he gently clasped them around her elbows, his own arms resting on her legs. She dropped the test, gripping onto his shoulders instead.  
“Do you want me to bring you to a hospital?”  
She shook her head.  
“No…no I’ll…make an appointment…I don’t have to go immediately…”  
“I’ll make it for you”, Connor stroked along her upper arms gently.  
“I…”, she sighed, “okay, just…doctor Mills from the Henry-Ford Hospital, okay? She’s my doctor”  
Connor looked the doctor in question up, a frown forming on his face.  
“Dr. Mills is no specialist in gynaecology”, he noted.  
She sighed.  
“She’s my doctor”, she said again, “She’s been taking care of everything about me since I was a child, she knows enough about gynaecology”  
Connor watched her for a moment, then nodded.  
“Alright…I’ll be sure to make your appointment”, he gently stroked at her arms again, then slowly moved to get up, but she gripped his arms, shaking her head.  
“Can we just…stay here for a moment…? I want some…some quiet...”, she requested.  
Connor looked around.  
“It is rather uncomfortable here, Cassandra…there’s nap rooms upstairs. We can go there”, he said.  
She looked at him for a moment, then chuckled.  
“Well, I surely heard that before, but that was a wildly different context”, she said with a soft chuckle, barely more than a slight shaking in her voice.  
He tilted his head, watched her, frowning.  
“It’s alright, Con”, she smiled weakly, then stood up, using him to pull herself up.  
His hands rested on her elbows and he gently pulled her closer, slowly walking backwards to pull her out of the stall. She let him lead her, almost sinking into his little tugs and gentle strokes, following him, but then suddenly stopping as they got to the door.  
“I don’t want them to see me like this”, she whispered, “Not after…that…I don’t want to give Gavin any room to come at me again. And I don’t want Fowler worrying about me again, I don’t want anyone worrying about me again-“  
“Again?”, he asked.  
She hesitated.  
“Tuesday…after you two left…I…sort of had a panic attack, in the middle of the precinct”, she admitted then.  
Connor looked at her, then moved a little closer to her, but froze halfway through his step and retreated again. Disappointment spread on her face.  
“…The deviant that shot you?”, he asked then.  
She looked away.  
“It’s no longer active. It’s gone. It can’t hurt you anymore. And I will stop the rest of them”  
Now she looked up again, glared at him.  
“You know, that’s exactly the opposite of what I want”, she said.  
Connor slowly looked away. He knew. She had told him often enough.  
“Come on, they won’t pay any attention, and I’ll be there to shield you. It’s a short walk over to the elevator”, he reassured her.  
Still, she hesitated, until he offered her his hand. And she took it, letting him ever so gently pull her out of the washrooms, moving himself in between her and the office as he led her to the elevator, swiftly pushing the button and turning to her as they waited.  
“Cassandra”  
The redhead visibly winced at the detective’s voice, she looked away as he approached. Connor turned around, watching detective Reed. The elevator dinged before he got to them, Connor gently grabbed Cassandra, pushing her into the elevator and then placing himself in front of Reed, stopping him from entering it. And then the doors closed. 

Cassandra stood there for a moment in confusion as the elevator doors slid closed and her own reflection stared back at her. She bit her lip, then moved, pressing the button that would bring her up to the nap rooms and the elevator instantly set into movement. A few seconds and the silvery doors opened back up, revealing the long, darkened corridor. She’d rarely been here, couldn’t remember a single time, actually. She swiftly slipped out of the elevator, moving and leaning against the wall, waiting…Connor would come to join her, or so she hoped.


End file.
